Oklahoma City Public Schools recently released a more detailed breakdown of its massive budget cuts. This breakdown was presented to principals during a “Back to School” meeting, and shows specifically how cuts could affect students next school year.
The district’s fine arts budget will be slashed by 50 percent, for a total reduction of $195,000. This will impact supplies and transportation expenses. District officials say they will focus reductions on transportation expenses, in order to retain fine arts supplies in the classrooms.
The entire library media budget will be eliminated, saving $206,000. Library media cuts will impact the purchase of new resources for all schools. Mark Myers, Director of Media Relations for the district, said in a statement that OKCPS has built a solid collection of resources for students over the years, and the district recently expanded online resources for students through myON Reader, and the Metropolitan Library Systems ONE Card Program.
Additionally, the elementary school budget will be reduced by 10 dollars per student—from $25 to $15—affecting funds for classroom supplies and other needs.
These are just a few cuts the district is making. OKCPS carved $30 million out of its budget for next year due to what it calls a catastrophic budget crisis. It already let go of 208 teachers and about 90 administrators.
In order to deal with the cuts, the district is actively soliciting donations and volunteers.
