The cafetorium at Kellyville High School was crowded with a lot of people that you wouldn’t normally see on this side of Sapulpa, but they were glad to be there. They’d just completed an 18.5-mile journey from Webster School in the Red Fork area of West Tulsa, marching toward Oklahoma City in an attempt to gather the state’s attention and provoke a change by the legislature to fund our schools.
They’d be staying the night at the Kellyville High School, and then moving on to Bristow in the morning.
Kellyville Principal Danny Wood introduced us to Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist and we sat down to talk about the experience and get her take on the activity here and down at the Capitol.
“I’m feeling energized and excited, and…and sore.” she began. “But these guys have been so great,” she points around the room at various Kellyville Staff. “Great hospitality,” she said. “When we came upon the school and I saw it, I said, ‘this is my favorite high school ever!'”
There you have it, folks. Dr. Gist just called Kellyville High School her “favorite ever”. But she quickly corrected herself, “besides Tulsa, of course.” she laughs.
As we began to dig further into the situations that have arisen out of years of Oklahoma’s schools being underfunded, Gist never lost the light in her eyes, but her smiles did turn more serious.
“It was already a problematic situation, that has now been made untenable,” she says.
Gist, now in her third year as Superintendent for Tulsa Public Schools, came to Oklahoma from Rhode Island, where the per pupil spending is more than twice that of the Sooner State. It’s an odd thought, that a state you could drive across in just over half an hour would have that much more to spend than Oklahoma, but it’s not the size that matters, “it’s how you spend it,” Gist says.
That’s the angle she takes when you ask her about past propositions to shore up education funding by consolidating schools or removing administration.
“We have extraordinarily low administration costs as a state,” she says. “I think it’s about 5% or less. It wouldn’t bring any more money into education. The per pupil spending amount would not change.”
Gist also says that such an action would like cause harm in ways that may not be immediately clear, yet. “I’ve driven all across this state meeting different Superintendents of small schools, and some of them I couldn’t meet until later in the day because they were driving a bus. Some of these Superintendents do a lot of different jobs. So you might merge this school and that school and save money in the short run, but it doesn’t help in the long run.”
Now the question of the moment: So why didn’t the teachers take the deal that legislation offered? Isn’t that what you wanted?
“There’s no question, priority number one has been about getting our teachers and the support staff and all those folks a raise,” she begins, putting her fist into her other hand to get the point across.
“But all things considered, the amount a teacher gets paid now is worth $5800 less than it was in 2006. So when you think about it, this raise was more of a correction than an actual raise. And it’s not the whole point. These teachers are trying to get our legislators to sit up and pay attention. Even before all the cuts, Oklahoma has historically underinvested in it’s education program.”
A few students came by to talk and ask questions about how long the trip was. When she told them, they were shocked. “That’s a long walk,” one said. “That’s really a long walk.”
A bit later, a group of teachers on their way back from protesting in Oklahoma City swung by to show their support for the other teachers making the journey down Route 66. They informed us that the crowd was still going strong. “We were leaving at 3:30pm to go home for the day, and there were more people coming in than there was that were leaving,” one said.
It appears to be working. This afternoon, The House passed a bill that increased revenue by $20.5 million. It goes to the Senate soon.
As for tonight, the plan was to work on chants and cheers for tomorrow, and then have some fun with a little karaoke. As we wrapped up the interview, Gist told Sapulpa Times she didn’t consider herself a key player in this trip to the Capitol. “This is their story, I’m just happy to be along for the ride.”
