Filing Deadline Nears

According to the Tulsa County Election Board, the deadline is nearing for filing for one of two open spots in the Tulsa Public School Board. The filing period is December 5-7, 2005 and the election is in February of 2006.

The open spots are for Districts #4 and #7.
District #7 is currently held by Matt Livingood the TPS School Board
President.


From the TPS website:
Mr. Livingood, currently serving as president of the Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education, was appointed to the Board of Education in October 2001 and was elected to the post in February 2002. His term will expire February 2006.

Mr. Livingood is a solo attorney in private general practice with expertise in family law, small business matters and in dispute mediation. He is an owner and principal in Just Decisions, LLC, a dispute resolution service firm. He earned a B.A. from the University of Louisville in 1973 and a J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville in 1980. He taught middle school grades for six years at St. Francis School in Goshen, Kentucky.

Mr. Livingood and his wife, Laura, have two children, Kate and Matthew, who attended and graduated from Tulsa Public Schools. As a school volunteer, he served on an elementary school advisory council and helped found and served on three different local school foundations.

Livingood is an active, life-long member of the Episcopal Church. He is a lay member of the Oakerhater Community, an order within the Episcopal Church committed to supporting those engaged in ministries of reconciliation.

Schools in Mr. Livingood's election district include Carnegie, Grimes, Grissom, Patrick Henry, Key, Marshall and McClure elementary schools; Nimitz and Thoreau middle schools, and Memorial High School.

District #4 is currently held by Bobbie Gray.



From the TPS website:
Mrs. Gray was appointed to the Board of Education in January 1997 and was elected unopposed February 1998 and again in February 2002. She served as vice president from February 1999 through February 2000. Her current term will expire February 2006.

For the past 16 years Mrs. Gray has served in such leadership roles as a commissioner on the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (6 years); a member of Vision 2000, Riverside Task Force, Citizens for Tulsa, Tulsa's Education Task Force, etc. Currently she belongs to HOT (Homeownership Tulsa), the Mayor's Substandard Housing Task Force, East Tulsa Prevention Coalition and teaches monthly first-time home buyer classes. Although she has been a licensed realtor in Tulsa for over 23 years, she is now a home mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Mrs. Gray has lived in east Tulsa for over 22 years. She has been married for almost 30 years and to Richard Gray and has four children and 8 grandchildren. All of her children attended Tulsa Public Schools and graduated from East Central High School. In her spare time she spends time with family and loves to fish.

Schools in Mrs. Gray's election district include Columbus, Cooper, Disney, Kerr, Lindbergh, Mayo, Newcomer, Peary, Sandburg, and Skelly elementary schools; Zarrow International School; Foster and Lewis & Clark middle schools; and East Central High School.

TPS Board members have a thankless job and I give them a tip of the hat. However, we all know that the entrenched bureacrats run the show and will quickly indoctrinate any new initiate. We could stand some new blood on the TPS school board though....

What Will It Take?

This is really nothing new for T-Town. Yeah, our public school system overall is bad. It made the "needs improvement" list again. You can link to an article about it here.

Here is the gist of the article;

1-30-05 - Low test scores and graduation rates prompted state education officials to order 22 Oklahoma school districts, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, to improve based on federal No Child Left Behind standards.

Tulsa and Oklahoma City, the state's two largest districts, both were criticized for low graduation rates in a report presented to the state Board of Education on Tuesday.

Schools are graded on test scores, graduation rates and the number of students who take end-of-course tests. Those failing to meet those benchmarks for two consecutive years make the "needs improvement" list.

Appearing on the list a second year, but not showing improvement are: Commerce, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Western Heights.

Appearing on the list a second year, but showing improvement are: Broken Arrow, Cache, Cameron, Canadian, Crooked Oak, Edmond, Grandfield, Idabel, Keota, McCurtain, Midwest City-Del City, Millwood, Okmulgee, Pittsburg, Putnam City, Shawnee, Wynnewood, and Wynona.

Do you see a trend?

The two largest public school districts in the state, Tulsa and OKC are the two worst. Broken Arrow and Edmond, the third and fourth largest cities in Oklahoma are now also on the list. Midwest City, Del City and Putnam City are also larger cities with larger schools and districts.

I am convinced that larger schools breed the apathy among students and staff alike. Students can literally disappear and fall through the cracks, while teachers are overwhelmed with behavior problems, special needs kids and paperwork.

One greatly needed reform is for smaller schools. I'm talking about high schools with less than 300 students max. That way, everyone knows everyone and you might be able to build a family-type learning conducive environment.

The old ways of traditional education coupled with the mores and attitudes of the public are not enough to reform the public education system. It will have to be reformed from without.

I know you are all sick of me beating this drum. I just hope that someday, someone with some authority will pick up on it. I think it is THE MOST CRITICAL FACTOR TO GETTING TULSA BACK ON ITS FEET!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish all of you a very happy and joyous Thanksgiving. It is the best holiday of the year!