Oklahoma’s public school enrollment has seen its first downturn in 19 years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the biggest hits have been to pre-K and kindergarten.
According to the annual Oct. 1 student count, overall enrollment was down 9,537 students, or 1.36%, to 694,113 students total.
Just a year earlier, the state’s student count of 703,650 was noted by officials at the Oklahoma State Department of Education for being the first-ever instance of public school enrollment exceeding 700,000.
According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Oklahoma public school enrollment had been on the rise every year since 2002.
Every single traditional school district in Tulsa County posted losses, with the hardest-hit being Keystone, Owasso and Tulsa, in that order.
Tulsa Public Schools reported a 33% decline in pre-K enrollment and 15% decline in kindergarten, which Superintendent Deborah Gist said is “pretty consistent” with pandemic enrollment trends across many of the nation’s largest, urban school districts.
“I’m very concerned about our little Tulsans who are missing these critical and foundational early years of learning,” Gist said. “Our schools have been working so hard one-on-one with families to try to bring kids back to school, and we have seen positive results. It’s not just about counts and budgets — it’s about serving kids. In some cases, we don’t know where the children have gone.”
Early childhood enrollment declines account for three-fourths of the state of Oklahoma’s overall downturn in public school students, with 4,734 fewer prekindergartners and 2,381 fewer kindergartners than in the 2019-20 academic year.
“This pandemic has presented a multitude of challenges, and lower early childhood enrollment numbers tell us we will need to heighten our focus on early learning opportunities and strategic interventions to ensure these children have the prerequisite skills needed for reading and math,” said State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister. “Copious evidence points to the effectiveness of early childhood education in preparing children for lives of learning and academic success, and we are deeply committed to serving our youngest learners.”
Debra Andersen, executive director of the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness, said national advocates for early childhood education are already discussing the resources that will be needed to address deficits in the youngest children’s development.
“It is hard for us to keep our finger on the pulse of what children and families are doing right now,” Andersen said. “What are the long-term impacts going to be by missing out on this critical time, the window of opportunity for kids to have the kinds of educational experiences that are going to lay the foundation? But with little ones, you can’t leave them home alone.
“Schools have been opened and closed and families just need a consistent place they know can provide care for their child while parents work. Many of these families have probably prioritized their concerns about the health and safety of their kids over their early childhood education needs.”
According to state education officials, there were also dramatic increases seen this year in pre-K and kindergartners enrolled in Oklahoma’s six statewide virtual charter schools, which offer online instruction to children at home.
Pre-K enrollment at those schools was up 214%, from 623 to 1,956, and kindergarten enrollment was up 271%, from 793 to 2,945.
Annual student counts are a major factor in how public schools are funded and Tulsa Superintendent Gist said all of the shifts and changes that are occurring, some of which may be long-term, are making the task of budgeting and planning for staffing needs extraordinarily challenging.
“We’re going to have to make some predictions about that and take some actions to try to get the outcome we want, which is to bring our families and kids back home to our schools,” she said. “It is difficult to predict and plan when there is no past experience.”
Owasso Superintendent Amy Fichtner said her district’s enrollment has already rebounded by about 200 students since the state’s annual official count was taken on Oct. 1.
Owasso Public Schools leaders are trying to ride out pandemic-related uncertainties by not overreacting to enrollment declines and instead focus on supporting classroom teachers and shielding students and parents from fiscal management concerns going on “in the background.”
“Because of the pandemic, our families are making the best decisions they can. This truly is an individual family decision based on their family dynamics and their needs and their feelings about the choices offered here,” Fichtner said. “This was a new experience for everyone. We have had to be flexible in the way we deliver our program options. Our teachers have been exceptionally nimble.”
Dramatic shifts of students have also been recorded across the public school system, as a significant number of parents looked to forgo any in-school instruction for their children in 2020-21 because of the pandemic.
That trend sent student enrollment in Oklahoma’s online public schools soaring.
Across all six public schools sponsored by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, plus Epic Blended Learning Centers, which offer online students in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties some in-person instruction options, enrollment more than doubled from 32,494 on Oct. 1, 2019, to 67,038 on Oct. 1, 2020.
Epic Charter Schools, which includes the statewide Epic One-on-One virtual school, now serves 59,445 students compared to 28,068 in October 2019.
E-School Virtual Charter Academy, a Guthrie-based online school founded in August 2019, has seen the greatest one-year spike. A little over a year ago, the fledgling E-School had 44 students, but as of Oct. 1, claimed 978.
Co-founder Phil Nichols said student enrollment there was down to around 900 by early November and it has dwindled more since then.
“People are going back to brick and mortar (schools),” he said. “Primarily what we are seeing now is parents saying they’ve become more comfortable with what’s going on with COVID, and I think it was a bit more rigorous than some people thought it would be.”
Despite the mid-year erosion in student numbers, Nichols said E-School is already planning for additional technology and staffing needs for 2021-22, as new growth is expected.
“I can tell you what we thought we would get to in terms of student enrollment before COVID – it wasn’t 900. I can tell you that, so it’s been tough,” he said laughing. “It has been an impossible situation, but we’ve got some fabulous, just rock star teachers.”
Featured video: Grave robbers nearly destroyed one of Oklahoma’s most precious archaeological sites
Tulsa World’s people to watch 2021
People to Watch - Amy Brown

As Tulsa’s deputy mayor and, since November, its chief administrative officer, Amy Brown does a lot of “non-glamorous, behind-the-curtain work,” as she puts it.
But she’s also the administration’s point person on at least one very public project expected to attract national and even international attention in 2021 — the search for unmarked burials from Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre.
People to Watch - Sen. Kevin Matthews

State Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, is pictured in front of the Greenwood Rising history center being built at Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, the once and perhaps future crossroads of a thriving African American commercial district.
In 2017 Matthews introduced Senate Bill 17 as part of his goal to build a reminder of the 1921 Race Massacre and a memorial to what he calls “the most resilient people on this earth,” who built, rebuilt and persevered through many setbacks over past 100 years.
People to Watch - Ryan Walters

Oklahoma Secretary of Education Ryan Walters may not get all interested parties on the same page in the coming year, but he hopes to at least get them in the same room.
Gov. Kevin Stitt nominated Walters for secretary of education in September as part of a cabinet reorganization. It is the first time Stitt has had a cabinet officer who is solely focused on education.
A McAlester native, Walters taught full-time in the McAlester Public Schools for eight years and continues teaching Advanced Placement courses there and in Millwood Public Schools, even after becoming executive director of Oklahoma Achieves, an education initiative of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce.
People to Watch - Aliye Shimi

“We have had many people turning to their faith traditions and faith communities at a time like this," said Aliye Shimi, executive director of the interfaith Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry.
"We see it any time there’s a disaster, everybody kind of turns to faith.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in congregations and their memberships during this time. Where you would have thought we’d have a drop off, it’s been an increase. Even in giving."
People to Watch - Becky Gligo

“I love this job,” said Becky Gligo, housing policy director for the city of Tulsa and soon to be full-time director of the nonprofit Housing Solutions. “I’m a full-blown housing nerd.”
That’s good, because COVID-19 is turning what was already a problem in Tulsa into a potential crisis. In moving from the city to the lead agency for the area nonprofits fighting homelessness, Gligo (pronounced GLEE-go) will be right in the middle of the fray.
With a federal eviction moratorium expiring at the end of the year and landlords feeling the strain of lost revenue, Gligo and others fear a wave of homelessness in 2021.
People to Watch - Mike Bausch

Mike Bausch knows the pain most Tulsa restaurants, and just about all small businesses, have suffered this year.
Bausch and his brother Jim own a group of Tulsa restaurants that includes Andolini’s Pizza, STG Gelaterias and Prossimo Italian Ristorante. Between the economic downturn and the isolation measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19, the Bausch enterprises have taken some lumps, says Mike.
But they’ve also found ways to survive and even improve.
People to Watch - Jennifer Murphy

Earlier this year, at about the same time many American cities roiled with anger over law enforcement tactics, Lt. Jennifer Murphy was given the job of convincing some skeptical Tulsans that the police could be their friends.
As part of his reorganization of the department, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin put Murphy in charge of a new Community Engagement Unit. The unit mostly combined initiatives already operating independently, but without much coordination or combined focus.
People to Watch - Joe Deere

Cherokee Tribal Councilor Joe Deere says his job calls for a lot of hats.
The one Tulsans are most likely to see him wearing is for community involvement.
Whether that’s organizing a food distribution at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, volunteering for the Special Olympics or figuring out how to improve access to tribal services, Deere has committed himself to helping people get through the COVID-19 pandemic and to raising the Cherokee Nation’s profile in Tulsa.
People to Watch - Lori Long

Lori Long picked a heck of a time to become executive director of the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.
After 12 years leading the Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges, Long took over northeastern Oklahoma’s largest food assistance network on March 30 — just in time for an unprecedented wave of demand caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.
In April, Long’s first month on the job, the food bank moved a record 3.8 million pounds of food. In September, it went over 4 million pounds.
People to Watch - Dr. David Kendrick

A high school job entering genome sequencing data introduced Dr. David Kendrick to medical science, so it’s perhaps not surprising that his career revolves around information systems.
To be sure, there is an M.D. after his name, with specialties in pediatrics and internal medicine. But at the top of a long list of job titles are chairman of the Department of Informatics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Tulsa and and chief executive officer of MyHealth Access Network.
That’s a mouthful that may not mean much to the average Tulsan — at least not until they wind up in the back of ambulance or a hospital emergency room.
12 months for just $26

"This is a special 'editor' offer at a rate we have not offered before. For just $26, you get unlimited access to everything on tulsaworld.com for a year. Every time you click on a story from social media you will get it without interruption and without surveys. Every story online + the daily e-edition that shows you the pages of the paper that day. Support our local journalists who work for you." — Tulsa World Editor Jason Collington