Consolidation To Have No Effect On Most Tulsa Public Schools Transfers

Ashli Sims, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Tulsa Public Schools' historic overhaul will not turn the tables on thousands of transfer students. Some feared school closures and new boundary lines could make those transfers null and void.

5/9/2011 Related Story: Tulsa Public Schools To Clear Up Consolidation Confusion

But News on Six Education Reporter Ashli Sims found out Thursday, that shouldn't happen for most families.

Tulsa School officials revealed Thursday the only transfers that will be affected are those who transferred to a school that is now supposed to close. Everyone else on existing transfers appears to be safe for now.

Tulsa Public Schools consolidation plan closed 14 schools and eliminated about 6,000 empty seats. The move downsized the district and also shrank the opportunities for parents to transfer students between Tulsa schools.

Read the consolidation plan

Now the district says there are just four schools they predict will be at or very near capacity: Carnegie, Jones, McClure, and Park Elementary Schools.

Right now, district leaders say they don't think they'll have to revoke any existing transfers to those schools or any other schools.

But there are 1,400 students, roughly eleven percent of the student body, who are on a transfer to a school that will close next year. Those students will revert back to their neighborhood schools.

As for news transfers, the district is still working that out. Carnegie, Jones, McClure and Park are nearly full, so most likely they won't be able to take any new transfers. But the district believes some schools will have room.

They plan to post on their website where those seats will be available in early June.