By Steve Berg
TULSA, Okla. — Five local charter schools plan to make a bid to buy some buildings from Tulsa Public Schools that the district refers to as “surplus” property.
The charter schools – College Bound Academy, KIPP Tulsa, Tulsa Legacy Charter School, Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences and Tulsa Honor Academy – have already been using the six buildings in question, but now they plan to make a bid to actually own and renovate them.
TPS and the charter schools see it as a win-win situation, whereby the charter schools would be able to insure the students have a stable location to call ‘home’ well into the future, and TPS would get to ease some budget strain by not having to maintain the buildings.
TPS estimates those costs to be roughly $30 million.
Officials point out that charter schools can’t raise bond money for building projects like most public school districts and say this effort is possible because of private benefactors.
They say the bid from the charter schools will be considered by the TPS board at their next meeting on March 23rd.
The buildings intended to be sold include:
● College Bound Academy’s Eastside campus, 2525 S 101st East Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74129
● College Bound Academy’s Brookside campus, 1110 E 45th Place, Tulsa, OK 74105
● KIPP Tulsa College Preparatory, 1661 E. Virgin Street, Tulsa, OK 74106
● Tulsa Legacy Charter School’s Upper Academy, 6001 N. Peoria Ave., Tulsa, OK 74126
● Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, 1202 W Easton St
● Tulsa Honor Academy’s Middle School, 209 S. Lakewood Ave. Tulsa, OK 74112
