When Tulsa Public Schools has faced shrinking enrollment and funding challenges, time and time again it’s closed or consolidated schools. As the district faces its latest budget shortfall, records show TPS is considering a recommendation to close more.
“TPS should pursue school closures or consolidations as part of its budget solution,” reads an internal central office staffing report written by Baker Tilly, the third-party firm the district hired in July for a staffing analysis.
The firm’s report is dated March 2, and the district began applying the firm’s five recommended phases this spring, beginning with cuts to district-wide staff, vendor contracts and operational spending. As TPS pursues more cost-cutting measures, Baker Tilly wrote, it should also identify which schools could be closed as soon as the 2027-28 school year.
“Identify schools with chronically low enrollment and merge them with other schools or close them,” the report reads. “Each school closure yields savings in school-level administration and operations — one fewer principal (and possibly an assistant principal), office staff, librarian, custodial staff, utilities, maintenance, security, etc. These savings can be substantial.”
The Tulsa Flyer obtained the staffing analysis May 26 through a records request. TPS chiefs have briefly acknowledged discussions about the district’s “school site footprint” at board meetings but have yet to publicly outline concrete plans for school closures.
Closing three to five schools, the report reads, could save several million dollars per year while allowing fuller staffing and resources at those remaining.
According to the report, the district stands a better chance of long-term financial stability by first cutting central office staff and “finally closing and consolidating facilities.”
A shrinking shortfall today but an unclear future
This year the district reported a $17 million budget shortfall — meaning it needs to pull from its fund balance, a pool of money that covers essential costs before revenue from property taxes and federal reimbursement rolls in, to cover expenses.
That gap has started to shrink, according to interim Chief Financial Officer Dwayne Thompson at a May 18 board meeting. Child nutrition revenue saw a small bump this year, he said, and the shortfall could be about half the size originally expected.
The district’s staffing cuts have reduced costs by $7 million so far, noted Superintendent Ebony Johnson at the same meeting. The district has also cut local travel reimbursement for cabinet members and is reducing vendor contracts, Johnson said.
TPS will still have to dip into the fund balance at the end of this fiscal year, and its financial worries are not likely to disappear.
“Without making significant and immediate adjustments, the District risks worsening the financial situation,” the Baker Tilly report reads. “It is critical to take decisive action now to prevent further deterioration and ensure that TPS can continue to serve its students effectively.”
The March staffing analysis predicts an average annual shortfall of $28 million in the district’s general fund if changes aren’t made. That same month, the district’s chief financial officer, Kristin Stephens, told the board current spending would create “profound risk” and drop the fund balance below the $48 million needed to cover core costs by 2028.
Stephens was recruited to the Oklahoma State Department of Education in October when Lindel Fields took over as state superintendent. She is still serving as the CFO at TPS, in addition to her new role as the interim deputy superintendent of operations at OSDE. Thompson is the interim CFO to support Stephens.
Declining enrollment and a continued deficit
Employee benefits are more expensive, inflation is putting pressure on other goods and services — and the district still needs to combat the loss of pandemic-era federal funding. Enrollment is expected to continue declining due to falling birth rates and the popularity of non-public options. That drop affects state aid, the primary source of funding for the district.
The district has capacity for more than 45,000 students, but only 32,450 were enrolled in October 2025. Several schools are well below their site’s capacity. One TPS elementary school, according to the report, is at less than 40% capacity. Another 17 schools are at 55% or less.
In 1968, TPS had around 85,000 students. When the birth rate across the United States declined in the 1970s and ‘80s, as outlined in the Tulsa World, it closed or consolidated dozens of schools. In 2011, then-Superintendent Keith Ballard closed 14 buildings through “Project Schoolhouse” to save the district about $5 million annually.
When former Superintendent Deborah Gist oversaw west Tulsa school closures in 2017, she told community members Webster High School was projected to have only 372 students by the 2026-27 school year. The campus was designed to serve 930 students, Gist said in a 2017 World report. That low enrollment isn’t “sustainable,” she said.
Webster High School has 382 students this school year, according to district data obtained by the Flyer. With the addition of middle schoolers, the campus is serving 761 students. Central High School has 381 students, and the middle school has 294.
In 2019, Gist announced the district needed to cut $20 million from its budget due to declining enrollment and a continued financial deficit. That year, it estimated it would need to use between $13 million and $17 million from its fund balance to close the gap, as reported by the World.
It hosted a dozen community engagement events to discuss possible cuts and launched an online survey. By 2020, the district had merged or closed nine schools on the north side.
All options on the table to cut costs
In February of this year, TPS announced central office staffing cuts to reduce the current multimillion-dollar deficit. It would be the first round of many, said chief officers at the district.
When the Flyer asked Feb. 23 if school closures might come next, CFO Stephens said TPS was leaving all options on the table.
The Flyer asked the superintendent about those statements in a March 10 Tulsa Press Club forum about the school bond proposal.
“That’s peculiar to me, that district staff would believe that closures are on the way, because we haven’t spoken to district staff about ‘closures are upon us,’” Johnson said.
The forum was eight days after the staffing analysis was dated, though it is unclear when district leaders received the report.
“We’re looking at every single aspect of our district to see what’s going to make the most sense for how we operate school,” Johnson said. “How we make sure that our students have the best learning quality of learning experience possible. And all things are on the table.”
When asked again April 8 about the possibility of school closures after voters approved the district’s $609 million bond, Johnson said all options were being discussed. She said there will be several phases and the district “can’t speak directly” to what will happen over time.
“But I will just say that we are looking at every single area of our district to ensure that we have an efficient district to serve the number of students that we have,” Johnson said. “To make sure that we are continuing the academic growth that we need, and just making sure we right size our budget in a way that makes sense for both us and the public.”
After obtaining the staffing analysis May 26, the Flyer requested to speak with Johnson, Stephens and Chief of Operations and Chief Information Officer Joe Jennings about proposed school site reductions. All requests were denied due to “travel schedules or time constraints” by district spokesman Kyle Boone.
The Flyer also requested to speak with any other available staff members in the district’s finance, strategy or business operations services departments. This request was also denied.
Boone offered a statement in response to the Flyer’s interview requests and said it would be the only comment TPS is making regarding school closures and consolidations at this time:
“As part of Tulsa Public Schools’ work to best align our district with the current and projected fiscal realities, we are continuing to engage community members in developing a strategic plan for the next five years. Through partnership with all stakeholders, we will tackle challenges identified for Tulsa Public Schools, including the likelihood that enrollment trends continue to impact our district, specifically at schools that may be underenrolled. As we approach right-sizing our district budgets, we remain committed to prioritizing strong student engagement and supportive learning environments while being clear-eyed about what the data tells us we should plan for in the near future, including an honest assessment of how those realities could impact a subset of our schools.”
The district board is set to vote on the preliminary 2026-27 school year budget at its meeting, Monday, June 1. Its fiscal year ends June 30, and final figures for district finances should head to the board later this summer.
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