Tulsa school board members received an overview Monday of a 2021 bond proposal that, if approved next month, would likely go to voters in a May election.
Members of a citizen committee who worked on the project with district staff members presented the overview and a projected timeline at a special meeting of the Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education.
Superintendent Deborah Gist said the topic was “a chance to remind ourselves that where we are right now, with the global pandemic, is not a forever situation.”
“This is a wonderful moment for us to take a step back and say that we will be beyond this. We have a lot of amazing work happening and a lot of amazing work coming.”
Gist added that Monday’s meeting “is just the initial conversation” and that board members will each have the opportunity to review the proposal’s packages in detail.
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Josh Roby, chairman of the 2021 Citizen Bond Development Committee, said district staff helped the committee identify priorities.
“In particular, this program will really try to focus on the district as a whole, looking at the whole child and making sure that the packages meet their needs,” Roby said.
“Equity across the district was the driving force for the citizens who packaged this together,” he added.
Up next, committee leaders will meet with the school board members individually to focus on how the projects would affect their districts.
Roby said they expect to have the bond proposal ready for inclusion on the Feb. 1 board agenda, with final board approval sought at the Feb. 22 board meeting.
If that happens, the proposal would be on track for a potential election in May, he said.
The committee has been working on four packages of projects since June.
Those are: safe learning environments, which includes facilities and maintenance projects; quality teaching-learning materials and programs; student classroom technologies; and transportation.
In the district’s most recent bond election in 2015, voters approved a record $415 million proposal. The final sale from it will be in August.
The special meeting’s only other agenda item was an update on the COVID-19 situation for the district and community.
Officials said that while case numbers continue to climb, the good news is that the district is starting staff vaccinations this week.
Board member John Croisant said, “I think it’s huge that we are starting vaccinations. The fact that we’re starting that will give us the opportunity to see how it goes and build on that.”
“On the other hand,” he added, “we’re looking at numbers that have almost doubled in the community since December. So, at the same time that the cavalry is coming in, we have not gotten everybody a vaccination, and they are probably at risk more now than they’ve ever been.”
Video and gallery: Staff writer Tim Stanley’s most memorable stories of 2020.(tncms-asset)1a7ac028-bf31-5803-adc6-ab51e86452e1[0](/tncms-asset)
Staff Writer Tim Stanley’s most memorable stories of 2020
75 years after their deaths in WWII, the ‘two Carls’ of Heavener remain forever linked for their families
Memorial Day story about two best friends from small town OK, Carl Cary and Carl Roop, who were killed in WWII within months of each other, and their families, who still have unanswered questions. This story started simply — from a photo of the boys I ran across on social media — and developed from there, with family members and other sources supplying various pieces. Of all my stories from the past year, it’s the one I’m most proud of.
5 years after losing her mother in the Oklahoma City bombing, Tulsan to honor her, help read victim names, for anniversary observance
Story is a look back on the Murrah Building bombing through the eyes of a Tulsan whose mother was killed in it — and who hasn’t missed an annual anniversary observance in the 25 years since. Dawn DeArmon, who lost her mom Kathy Leinen, had been quoted in earlier stories, but this was the first full interview she had done with us, and it offers a poignant glimpse into what it’s been like, going on with life after so sudden and irreversible a loss.
75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: As the world remembers, Tulsans do their part to make sure no one forgets
To mark the 75th anniversary of its end, the story recalls the infamous Nazi death camp Auschwitz through interviews with survivor Eva Unterman and other Tulsans who lost family there. We’ve written about Eva before, but this time the focus is on her brief time at Auschwitz. With stories from other families woven in, a fuller picture emerges of what that nightmarish ordeal must have been like for those who lived it.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in Tulsa only once. But 60 years later, his 'inspiring and electrifying' presence has not been forgotten
MLK Day feature that looks back at King’s one-and-only visit to Tulsa. I enjoyed the chance to bring the occasion to life through the memories of those who experienced it. But my favorite part was getting to share the never-before-told account of what may have prompted the visit: a letter from a Black Tulsa businessman, whose surviving daughter still has King’s reply among her keepsakes.
He died in Vietnam while trying to save his comrades. Now, 53 years later, a young African American soldier from Tulsa is finally receiving his hero’s due
Story about Joe Thomas, who is believed to be the only Tulsa recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross (nation’s second highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor) since WWII. It was an honor for me to be able to introduce readers to Thomas, whose record of heroic sacrifice had gone largely ignored until Tulsan Mike Lapolla began looking into it last year.
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