New high schools? A fresh stadium? OKC schools unveil projects for 2022 bond

New middle and high schools, 20,000-square-foot spaces and a stadium highlight Oklahoma City Public Schools’ list of projects for a potential $900 million bond issue this year.

The Oklahoma City Board of Education approved the bond's “transformational project list” with a 5-1 vote Monday.

The board also appointed a new member, Oklahoma City attorney and former college administrator Cary Pirrong, to its District 3 seat. The position became vacant last month when board member Carrie Coppernoll-Jacobs resigned for personal reasons.

But, bond discussion dominated the day as the school district aims to place the issue on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. The school board is expected to finalize the election date and ballot language on Aug. 15.

The proposed bond would construct a new Capitol Hill High School, a high school expansion for Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School and a regional stadium at John Marshall Enterprise High School.

More Coverage: OKC schools planning "transformational" bond issue for November ballot

A new building would combine Taft Middle School and Linwood fifth-grade center. Another would merge Wheeler and Capitol Hill middle schools.

The proposal suggests 20,000-square-foot constructions at John Marshall, U.S. Grant High School, Star Spencer High School, Frederick A. Douglass High School and Northwest Classen High School.

These spaces would create centers for vocational training, science and technology innovation, performing and visual arts, eSports, and college and career preparation, among other possibilities. The function of each flexible space would differ from school to school.

The transformational projects, the first of which could be complete by the 2026-27 school year, would make up the third bucket of funds from the bond.

The first bucket would cover yearly costs like band instruments and school buses. Bucket Two would pay for signature capital improvement projects — a new playground or a walking trail, for example — at every district school.

Gloria Torres was the only school board member to vote against advancing the project list on Monday. Torres contended a fourth high school built in south Oklahoma City should have made the final cut.

The proposal wouldn’t do enough to address overcrowding at high schools serving the area, she said.

The south side is home to three of the district’s four biggest high schools, including U.S. Grant, the high school with the most enrollment. Northwest Classen has grown into the second-largest high school in the district since some students living in south Oklahoma City were zoned to the school in 2019.

“If we are going to find a solution for this that is going to last, then this is the one opportunity that we have,” Torres said during Monday’s meeting. “This is an amazing opportunity that we are not going to get again any time soon. And to not give our families on the south side of Oklahoma City the opportunity to have that solid solution, I can’t support that.”

McDaniel said other projects in the 2022 bond would adequately address overcrowding. The district plans to grow capacity by building a new Capitol Hill High School and 12 new classrooms at U.S. Grant.

The superintendent said data of birth rates, housing development and population mobility indicate enrollment could level off and decline in south Oklahoma City in the future.

“While the narrative on overcrowded high schools on the south side is true today, the narrative of us busting at the seams for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years is not what the data tells us,” McDaniel said.

Other school board members and the superintendent expressed hope that Oklahoma City residents are more willing to support large school bond issues than in decades past.

Six district bond proposals failed at the ballot box from 1980 through 1999. The district passed only two bond issues in the past 15 years — a period when voters in peer districts approved more bond packages and at higher mill levies.

“I encourage everybody to view this as a step in the right direction of investment into our city, into our school district and a catalyst that will create an environment where this is not the only once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do this,” board member Meg McElhaney said. “The scarcity mindset does not help any of us, I don’t think.”

The 2022 bond could collect $900 million and would raise the district’s bond levy from 20 to 26 mills, McDaniel said. That would mark the first change in the district’s mill levy since 2000.

Right now, the district charges 18 mills for every $1,000 of assessed property value, the lowest bond levy of Oklahoma’s 10 biggest school districts.

If passed, the bond would represent the largest community investment in the Oklahoma City district since 2000, when voters approved both a $52 million school bond issue and the $700 million sales tax initiative MAPS 4 Kids.

“I believe that in a few years we’re going to be able to come back and do this again,” McDaniel said. “So, those things that we all believe we need that we didn’t get this time, those move up the list in the next time around.”

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New high schools? A stadium? OKC schools unveils 2022 bond projects