TPS Superintendent Deborah Gist is laying out the rest of her plan to make up a $20 million budget shortfall this week in a series of community meetings.
Gist announced last week she would recommend closing four elementary schools — Grimes, Jones, Wright and Mark Twain — to make up $2 million to $3 million of Tulsa Public Schools’ $20 million budget shortfall.
In the McLain High School cafeteria Monday evening at the first of four community meetings, Gist announced she will recommend reductions and changes in district office services accounting for $13 million to $14 million. She will also recommend changing the elementary school staffing ratio, resulting in an average class size increase of one student to 24. That will save approximately $3 million.
"These recommendations are going to have as limited a direct impact on students and teachers as we could possibly have come up with," Gist said.
Specific jobs that might be eliminated at the district office were not identified. Gist said TPS has contractual obligations to notify employees before making such announcements, and that has not been done yet. She said most of the changes, however, are not personnel-related, pointing to $1.5 million in potential savings by changing how worker's compensation claims are handled.
Previously, Gist had also mentioned changing bell schedules to find schedule efficiencies was a possibility so, for example, one bus driver can cover two routes.
Gist said feedback is welcome at this week's meetings, but it is unlikely any recommendations will change.
"This is an incredibly complex set of recommendations that can’t just be taken one piece by one piece. If you make a change to something, it has a ripple effect on other recommendations. But, with that said, we are coming back this week to listen," Gist said.
Gist will give her recommendations to the school board next month but said TPS will push lawmakers to invest more in education during the next legislative session, potentially letting her walk back some cuts.
"If that happens, then we will be responding accordingly based on the priorities that we know matter as educators and that we’ve heard that are consistent with what our community has said matters to them," Gist said.
Remaining meetings this week are Tuesday in the Memorial High School cafeteria, Wednesday in the East Central School cafeteria and Thursday in the Webster High School cafeteria. All meetings start at 5:30 p.m.
