OKC Public Schools

[ou48A]

Just curious as to the basis of "crime is now rampant"? Have you seen police reports or some other documentation? Is it all crime, property crimes, violent crimes or what? Is it higher in all schools or only in certain wards? Thanks.

It’s based on near real time word of mouth….. that statistics have not even started to catch up with…!!!!

I believe there is a great deal of lower end crime in OKCPS that doesn’t even get reported to the police out of fear of being retaliated against by administrators eager to show statistical improvements on a resume which appears to be the case many, many times.

It appears to be a district wide OKCPS problem that needs help from the city of OKC and from our state to gain control.

[Filthy]

It’s based on near real time word of mouth….. that statistics have not even started to catch up with…!!!!

It appears to be a district wide OKCPS problem that needs help from the city of OKC and from our state to gain control.

This is a real, and EXTREMELY quickly growing problem. Interestingly enough, the teachers and administrators that have not yet left..and have been trying to combat the issues/gain control/change the atmosphere..........have in this very thread, been labeled "as a whole" racists. Its disgusting to see what is happening, yet in the PC world we live in, nothing will ever be able to be done about it. (Let alone, be able to honestly discuss the true issues at hand.)

[Swake]

This is a real, and EXTREMELY quickly growing problem. Interestingly enough, the teachers and administrators that have not yet left..and have been trying to combat the issues/gain control/change the atmosphere..........have in this very thread, been labeled "as a whole" racists. Its disgusting to see what is happening, yet in the PC world we live in, nothing will ever be able to be done about it. (Let alone, be able to honestly discuss the true issues at hand.)

Man, kids getting in fist fights in high schools? Why I’ve never heard of such a thing. Except you know, since there’ve been hormones and high schools.

Stay Gold Pony Boy.

[ou48A]

This is a real, and EXTREMELY quickly growing problem. Interestingly enough, the teachers and administrators that have not yet left..and have been trying to combat the issues/gain control/change the atmosphere..........have in this very thread, been labeled "as a whole" racists. Its disgusting to see what is happening, yet in the PC world we live in, nothing will ever be able to be done about it. (Let alone, be able to honestly discuss the true issues at hand.)

Yep
There are plenty of examples of good long time career OKCPS teachers being fed up enough to quit their jobs on the spot and or never coming back after being treated so poorly by these administrators over there horrible discipline decisions.

The problems may start at home with the kids.... but the OKC school board has members that don’t belong on the board. They are responsible for the mess that we now see and need to be replaced ASAP!

[ou48A]

Man, kids getting in fist fights in high schools? Why I’ve never heard of such a thing. Except you know, since there’ve been hormones and high schools.

Stay Gold Pony Boy.

I’m guessing that you don’t know about the daily arrest that occurs at almost all OKCPS middle and high schools… Some are for serious offenses….that we rarely hear very much about in the news…. many of the repeat trouble makers are destined for very hard prison time.

[Filthy]

Man, kids getting in fist fights in high schools? Why I’ve never heard of such a thing. Except you know, since there’ve been hormones and high schools.

Stay Gold Pony Boy.

Ha! I believe it has more to do with the alarming rate of teachers/administrators being assaulted by students, school property being stolen/vandalized, individual students being jumped by large numbers. Many of these assaults are going unreported, with no charges being brought up on the minor child, and not just because the admin wants them to go unnoticed...but because they are happening at such a high frequency..there just isn't enough time in the day, to handle discipline them all. And high school? We're not talking about pushing and shoving in the halls, over a disagreement over a girl. We're talking about issues that are now being seen even at the elementary school level, that have never been seen before. Maybe you enjoy seeing these things..or maybe you live in these areas, and have been desensitized by these "normal" occurrences. But if you were to spend two days and go for observation to see what I've seen, some of the schools in the OKC district are like a 3rd World Country/Battle Zone, compared to most of the Edmond/Deer Creek/suburb schools of similar size during class. There is ZERO learning...as the teachers spend 90% of their efforts trying to get 85% of kids to just sit down and shut up, so they can use the 10% of their time and energy to teach the 15% of the kids who actually give a damn, to try and learn. And of course, when you try to discipline the ones that need it..you're met with "F*ck you..you cant do sh*t to me," from the students. Its pathetic...but evidently, right in line with your standards.

[FighttheGoodFight]

This discussion reminds me to watch the final season of The Wire.

[shawnw]

My daughter is a senior at an OKCPS school and informed me upon returning from winter break that they hadn't been doing much at school because so many teachers quit and hadn't been replaced yet... no idea if that's related to anything, but it surprised me.

[ou48A]

My daughter is a senior at an OKCPS school and informed me upon returning from winter break that they hadn't been doing much at school because so many teachers quit and hadn't been replaced yet... no idea if that's related to anything, but it surprised me.

Your daughter is the victim of the biggest crime of all........ and its being allowed by the corrupt system that is OKCPS….When good kids are not given an environment where they can learn and most do want to learn they pay for it sometimes for life…..

I would encourage you to talk to your daughter in great detail, become well informed and vocally involved and get your daughter out of the OKCPS if it’s at all possible for you.
At the end of the day we all lose though the lost potential of thousands and thousands of people

[shawnw]

I've been reasonably involved. My oldest graduated from OKCPS in 2014 after 8 years in the system. Only college class she's really had trouble with is Accounting. So there's that. The youngest graduates in 4.5 months after 10 years in the system. I'm not sure she'll fare as well college wise, but we'll see. But not a ton I can do about anything in 4.5 months, certainly can't move her (not sure she'd let me at this point).

[Swake]

Ha! I believe it has more to do with the alarming rate of teachers/administrators being assaulted by students, school property being stolen/vandalized, individual students being jumped by large numbers. Many of these assaults are going unreported, with no charges being brought up on the minor child, and not just because the admin wants them to go unnoticed...but because they are happening at such a high frequency..there just isn't enough time in the day, to handle discipline them all. And high school? We're not talking about pushing and shoving in the halls, over a disagreement over a girl. We're talking about issues that are now being seen even at the elementary school level, that have never been seen before. Maybe you enjoy seeing these things..or maybe you live in these areas, and have been desensitized by these "normal" occurrences. But if you were to spend two days and go for observation to see what I've seen, some of the schools in the OKC district are like a 3rd World Country/Battle Zone, compared to most of the Edmond/Deer Creek/suburb schools of similar size during class. There is ZERO learning...as the teachers spend 90% of their efforts trying to get 85% of kids to just sit down and shut up, so they can use the 10% of their time and energy to teach the 15% of the kids who actually give a damn, to try and learn. And of course, when you try to discipline the ones that need it..you're met with "F*ck you..you cant do sh*t to me," from the students. Its pathetic...but evidently, right in line with your standards.

My standards? My son's a freshman at Jenks. No issues at all. He's an honor roll student, plays football and lacrosse, is in debate and takes four pre-AP classes. He's never been in a fight to my knowledge and he rarely talks about seeing them.

My daughter is a Jenks grad (with honors) and is currently sophomore at Swarthmore College, a top 10 college for undergrad studies in the world. Also to my knowledge has never been in a fight in her life.

I have friends that teach in Tulsa Public Schools and I don't hear about anything like this. They complain about the lack of parental involvement and inappropriate behavior but nothing like teachers being attacked and a complete lack of learning. They attribute low scores at TPS mostly to nearly half the students at TPS now being hispanic and having so many ESL students.

[ou48A]

My standards? My son's a freshman at Jenks. No issues at all. He's an honor roll student, plays football and lacrosse, is in debate and takes four pre-AP classes. He's never been in a fight to my knowledge and he rarely talks about seeing them.

My daughter is a Jenks grad (with honors) and is currently sophomore at Swarthmore College, a top 10 college for undergrad studies in the world. Also to my knowledge has never been in a fight in her life.

I have friends that teach in Tulsa Public Schools and I don't hear about anything like this. They complain about the lack of parental involvement and inappropriate behavior but nothing like teachers being attacked and a complete lack of learning. They attribute low scores at TPS mostly to nearly half the students at TPS now being hispanic and having so many ESL students.

Jenks is a first rate school district and does a great job with its students.

TPS has its problems but teachers who have worked in the Tulsa district and OKCPS say that TPS are in much better shape than OKCPS……where it really is much more like a third world community.

There are teachers in the OKCPS who have taught in other non-western nations and others in other major intercity situations and say OKCPS has the worst behaving discipline problems of any they have ever seen.

Some kids with learning disabilities who are allowed by the administration day after day to scream to other students and teachers that they want to rape them and cuss like a vulgar drunken sailor over and over again… and nothing happens to them.
I have been told that OKC police have been asked by administrators to not work at least some illegal activity.

[Swake]

Jenks is a first rate school district and does a great job with its students.

TPS has its problems but teachers who have worked in the Tulsa district and OKCPS say that TPS are in much better shape than OKCPS……where it really is much more like a third world community.

There are teachers in the OKCPS who have taught in other non-western nations and others in other major intercity situations and say OKCPS has the worst behaving discipline problems of any they have ever seen.

Some kids with learning disabilities who are allowed by the administration day after day to scream to other students and teachers that they want to rape them and cuss like a vulgar drunken sailor over and over again… and nothing happens to them.
I have been told that OKC police have been asked by administrators to not work at least some illegal activity.

I think there are a few things going on here.

First there are many things today that will get a kid arrested that years ago would have been handled in school. With schools having their own police forces it’s almost forcing too many discipline issues into the legal system. All these “no tolerance” policies only make this problem worse. And once a kid is labeled a “bad” kid, they often live down to expectations.

Second, from what you are saying OKCPS isn’t handling kids with disabilities correctly. I’m not sure why that would be, but it it’s likely that lack of funding would have to be at least partly to blame. Teaching and then mainstreaming as many kids as possible with special needs is a big part of the increase in the cost of schools over the last couple of decades and mainstreaming these kids without proper support does sound like it could be a recipe for real problems. From what I know about how these kids should be handled is that if they are a disruption they would be housed in a very small class of special needs kids and not mainstreamed. A borderline case where a somewhat disruptive kid is mainstreamed they may have their own teachers assistant assigned to that child to monitor and help that child. That all takes money which as we all know, the schools have little of.

Lastly, and probably most importantly. Oklahoma has cut hundreds of millions in funding for what were already woefully underfunded schools since 2008 while we have added tens of thousands of new students. Class sizes are larger which make class management harder, it sounds like OKCPS also isn’t spending enough on support for special needs kids. Oklahoma also pays teachers really badly, we are losing qualified teachers to other states all the time while we are “emergency” certifying what are mostly non or under qualified people as teachers to fill the gap. Certainly some money could be saved by things like district consolidations but while that should be done, it’s just a drop in a pretty empty bucket. We are now paying for all those tax breaks that the state has given out. Be it removing property taxes from things like power plants, to our annual ¼ % income tax reduction on the TOP tax rate to making sure that energy production taxes are the lowest in the nation. We are getting what we haven’t paid for, or haven’t asked businesses to pay for.

[Midtowner]

Being part of the music world, I know a lot of public school educators (my wife included). Things are getting rough. Especially in OKCPS. OKCPS' problems are exacerbated by incompetent administrators at the district level. There was a long standing policy of promoting administrators out of schools to middle management where they could do less damage. The result is that between schools, YMMV and the district being highly inconsistent in the way it treats schools due to basic incompetence. Throw in major funding cuts and things aren't going to go well.

[ou48A]

I think there are a few things going on here.

First there are many things today that will get a kid arrested that years ago would have been handled in school. With schools having their own police forces it’s almost forcing too many discipline issues into the legal system. All these “no tolerance” policies only make this problem worse. And once a kid is labeled a “bad” kid, they often live down to expectations.

Second, from what you are saying OKCPS isn’t handling kids with disabilities correctly. I’m not sure why that would be, but it it’s likely that lack of funding would have to be at least partly to blame. Teaching and then mainstreaming as many kids as possible with special needs is a big part of the increase in the cost of schools over the last couple of decades and mainstreaming these kids without proper support does sound like it could be a recipe for real problems. From what I know about how these kids should be handled is that if they are a disruption they would be housed in a very small class of special needs kids and not mainstreamed. A borderline case where a somewhat disruptive kid is mainstreamed they may have their own teachers assistant assigned to that child to monitor and help that child. That all takes money which as we all know, the schools have little of.

Lastly, and probably most importantly. Oklahoma has cut hundreds of millions in funding for what were already woefully underfunded schools since 2008 while we have added tens of thousands of new students. Class sizes are larger which make class management harder, it sounds like OKCPS also isn’t spending enough on support for special needs kids. Oklahoma also pays teachers really badly, we are losing qualified teachers to other states all the time while we are “emergency” certifying what are mostly non or under qualified people as teachers to fill the gap. Certainly some money could be saved by things like district consolidations but while that should be done, it’s just a drop in a pretty empty bucket. We are now paying for all those tax breaks that the state has given out. Be it removing property taxes from things like power plants, to our annual ¼ % income tax reduction on the TOP tax rate to making sure that energy production taxes are the lowest in the nation. We are getting what we haven’t paid for, or haven’t asked businesses to pay for.

The funding issues are VERY bad......... but many if not most of the day to day issues of discipline are a simple choice and made much worse by VERY BAD leadership at virtually every level of administration…. The changes they made make it very difficult on well-meaning teachers and staff. The old way was better.

I can’t get into it on a message board but the OKCPS school board is where the problems start… There is cronyism with some having very serious character issues…. If the local media dug into this they could find these things out with a sustained journalistic investigation.

But if you hear anything good in the news about OKCPS and improvement in discipline don’t believe it.
They have their friends in the media who want to make certain people look good.
Several years ago while discussing the OKCPS with a former and very well-known long time local TV news anchor I was told that they are told not to report bad news about OKCPS.

[Plutonic Panda]

This isn't public schools, but it is coming to OKC and I didn't know how big it is to start a thread for it or not.

Cristo Rey Work-Study School Coming To OKC - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

[Plutonic Panda]

Oklahoma City Public Schools will eliminate 208 teaching positions | News OK

[Pete]

Neu plans to resign as OKC district superintendent | News OK

Neu to resign; no further info given.

He was the 9th OKC PS superintendent in the last 15 years.

[Zuplar]

Neu plans to resign as OKC district superintendent | News OK

Neu to resign; no further info given.

He was the 9th OKC PS superintendent in the last 15 years.

Wow. He didn't last long.

[Pete]

^

None of them do.

[corwin1968]

Nary a tear will be shed....

[Zuplar]

^

None of them do.

That's an unfortunate trend.

[corwin1968]

Source: Board meeting planned amid reports OKCPS superintendent will resign | Oklahoma City - OKC - KOCO.com

Included in the article is a link to a letter the AFT sent to all OKC teachers.

[ou48A]

This is very good news because of the past several Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendents Rob Neu has been by far the worst for the class room…. This is the consensus opinion of several long time OKC teachers.

I hope the replacement is not someone from out of state who would only come with the goal of building up his resume and then leave. This has caused tough decision to continually be kicked down the road.

The replacement needs to have the clout to make tough decisions and not move away shrinking from a challenge.
But so bad is the OKC school board, Mayor Mick Cornett and the Governor need to have some type of involvement in the next hire.

[Pete]

Have the teachers ever liked any superintendent?