The Tulsa Public Schools board voted 6-1 on Monday night to close 17 schools. Board Vice President Calvin Moniz cast the only no vote. The list has 14 elementary schools, two middle schools and one alternative school. They'll close at the end of this school year, and more than 4,700 students will move to new schools in fall 2027. The district expects to save $11.1 million, mostly from smaller staffs. It also plans $1.5 million in central-office cuts. Every school on the list had fewer than 400 students and used less than 65% of its building. On Tuesday, the district sent families a letter. It promised every student a seat at their new school, plus help with enrollment, transportation and safe routes to school. The board meets next at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 9.

The District Can't Afford to Wait (Superintendent Ebony Johnson, Board Member Stacey Woolley)

District leaders say the money runs out in two years without these cuts.

Without cuts, the district couldn't make payroll by 2028. Chief Financial Officer Kristen Stephens said six more elementary schools will drop below 60% full within two years. Administrators said that if spending stays the same, the district will drain its savings and won't be able to pay employees by fall 2028. Board member John Croisant said the district already cut $6.6 million from its administrative budget this year.

Fewer buildings means more kids get art and music. Superintendent Ebony Johnson said combining schools will let full-time art and music teachers reach more children. Right now, 6,119 students at 21 schools don't have their own art or music teacher.

Keeping underused schools open isn't fair to kids. Board member Stacey Woolley voted yes. She said it would be unfair to keep serving students "in a way that is less than equitable." "It's hard to do unpopular things," she said. Johnson asked families to stay with the district and "lock arms with us."

But North Tulsa Is Losing Its Schools Again (Darryl Bright, North Tulsa Parents)

North Tulsa residents say the closures fall hardest on Black neighborhoods that have lost schools before.

Almost half the closures are in north Tulsa. Eight of the 17 schools on the list are in north Tulsa. In the 1970s, Darryl Bright founded the group Citizens United for A Better Educational System to protest school closures there. "You are not learning from history," he told the board Monday.

Getting to a farther school is harder for these families. The city's 2025 equality report found that nearly four times as many Black households as white households don't have a car. The district is still working out bus details. "In 1921, they dropped bombs in north Tulsa. Now they're closing schools," Oti-Lisa Brown, a north Tulsa parent, told the Tulsa Flyer before the vote.

Staff say the board didn't listen. The meeting ran about four and a half hours. Most of the roughly 30 people who signed up to speak worked at schools on the list. The district didn't substantially change its plan or ask for a delay before the vote. "They didn't hear us," Kerr Elementary health aide Jennifer Jones said afterward.

And the Plan Could Push Families Out of the District (Jennettie Marshall, Rep. Michelle McCane, Board Vice President Calvin Moniz)

Critics say closures will drive away students, and the district will lose the funding that comes with them.

Families who lose their school may leave for good. Jennettie Marshall is the Democratic nominee for state superintendent and a former Tulsa school board member. "We will lose our families," she said. "They will leave, and they will go to virtual schools." The district blames a falling birth rate for its shrinking enrollment. Jared Buswell sits on Oklahoma's statewide charter school board, and he disputed the district's birth-rate explanation. He said most families leaving are "driving children to surrounding school districts."

Closures don't always save as much money as districts promise. Stanford assistant professor Francis Pearman studied almost a decade of California school closures. His research challenges the idea that closures reliably save money. He says school costs are mostly staff pay, not buildings. Many California districts also lost enrollment-based funding after closures, possibly because students left for private or charter schools.

Even the board member who voted no thinks the plan makes financial sense. Moniz said that "on paper, this proposal is probably the most plausible financial solution." He voted no because he isn't confident the district can carry it out. State Rep. Michelle McCane, a Tulsa Democrat and former district teacher, asked the board to "table this vote." She said the district "has lost the trust of many in the community."

Where This Lands

The board approved the cuts. The district says that without them, it couldn't pay employees by fall 2028. North Tulsa residents say their neighborhoods are losing schools again, as they did in the 1970s. Critics say the closures will drive more families out of the district. Even the board's own vice president doubts the district can carry the plan out. The district hasn't set the enrollment period for families yet, and the board meets again Nov. 9.

Sources