Tulsa’s Central High School may become a career and virtual school hub. Details are still in the works.

The future of Tulsa’s oldest public high school is still coming into focus.

Originally founded in 1906, Central High School’s population has dwindled from its 1938 peak of 5,000 students to around 345 last year. In an effort to cut costs and better use facilities, Tulsa Public Schools is recommending the high school become an alternative high school hub beginning next school year. 

The district’s proposal goes before the board for a vote Oct. 19. 

“Central High School is not closing, but there will be changes,” district spokeswoman Caroline Crouch told the Flyer in a Sept. 24 statement. “The Superintendent’s recommendation is to maintain Central High School, both honoring the legacy and developing something new and innovative that serves the needs of our students as they enter a rapidly changing world.”

If approved, Central will host career and technical programs alongside the district’s preexisting virtual options, Crouch wrote. The middle school, which shares the campus, is among 17 sites recommended for closure or consolidation. 

“What that would do for Central is to open up more space and opportunity for more of our specialized programs,” said Superintendent Ebony Johnson at the Sept. 21 board meeting. Johnson served as Central’s principal earlier in her career at the district.

Johnson noted the district is “getting it all perfected” but listed several career pathways as potential options at the high school’s campus, including the medical field, technology, health and human performance, cosmetology and certified nurses assistants. 

Demand is outpacing space for the district’s alternative programs, Johnson said, including Tulsa Virtual Academy, North Star Academy, New Vision and Twilight Academy. Those programs are housed in the former Alcott Elementary School, which closed in the district’s 2011 consolidation effort known as “Project Schoolhouse.” 

The district recommends the alternative programs move to Central’s campus as “four programs in one,” Johnson said. 

It estimates the site’s enrollment would grow to more than 1,000 with the change — though around 70% of those students would be in virtual programs, not physically on campus every day. Last year, the Central campus saw a total of 553 middle and high school students enrolled at the joint site, which has a total capacity of 986. 

“And as you all are aware, Central is one of our lowest-enrolled high school and middle schools in the district,” Johnson said. “Many of the families in the Central boundary are choosing virtual.”

How the change may impact extracurricular options is unclear. The site opened its first football stadium in more than a century in 2021. 

TPS did not fulfill a Flyer request to speak with district leadership about the plan for Central High School. When the Flyer reached out to Central’s current principal and assistant principals to discuss the proposal, district spokesman Kyle Boone wrote, “we will reach out to the school leaders to coordinate comments or an interview if appropriate.”

According to Crouch, current Central High School students may elect to stay at the site next year. 

“They will have automatic priority to continue their high school education in the new program: a modern, bustling campus that will house exciting technical programs as well as serve our growing population of virtual learning students,” Crouch wrote. 

The district is holding a series of community information sessions regarding the proposed closures. The next is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at east Tulsa’s Martin Regional Library. A community survey seeking input on the district’s future is live until Oct. 16.

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