TPS Proposal Would Make Rogers High School A College Magnet Program

Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A plan to reinvent Tulsa's Rogers High School was underway before the consolidation process started. The Superintendent says he's committed to it, regardless.

What could happen at Rogers is already happening on a smaller scale inside TPS.

The 2011 class at Rogers High School could well be the last graduates for a few years, if the district goes through with a plan to convert Rogers into a college magnet program.

The first group of students in the new Rogers High would be 7th-9th graders.

[Watch Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard answer questions about Project Schoolhouse on Six In The Morning]

"If the proposal stays in its current form and that's what the board accepts, there would not be an 11th or 12th grade class, for the next two years, there would not be a graduating class," Kenny Rodrequez, Director of Alternative Education, said.

The Rogers transition would expand a pilot program now in its second year at Tulsa Community College: 50 Tulsa students attend classes on the TCC Northeast campus, earning both high school and college credit.

"I'm actually in college class this year, for college readiness, it's for freshmen," Alison Glascow said.

Alison Glascow is just in 9th grade, but is on track to graduate from both High School and TCC at the same time.

"And this came up and it seemed like the perfect thing for me," she said.

The director of the program says each student has to agree to the faster pace and commit to pursuing both diplomas. At Rogers, the same commitment and opportunity could be offered to far more students.

"If you can graduate and have these high school and college credits at the same time, you've already seen you can be successful in a college setting and that's not going to stop you from going ahead and pursuing that next degree," Rodrequez said.

That's given Cameron Davis the distinction of being the first in his family to attend college. He wants to be a veterinarian.

"I want to get everything out of the way," Davis said. "And in my family, I'm the only person to go to college, no one has finished college and I'm taking college classes, so I want to be the first person in my family to fill that gap."

The Rogers plan is part of two of the three proposals and on Tuesday, Superintendent Ballard said he wanted to see it go forward.

Read the proposals.

It would start in the fall, with 7th - 9th graders, who as they progressed through, would become the first graduates of the New Rogers High, in 2015.

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