By FOX23.com News Staff
A meeting was held on Monday evening over the decision to close the Jenks Planetarium’s doors to the public.
The decision comes as Jenks Public Schools district officials originally wanted to close the planetarium due to funding-related issues and the planetarium generating money.
“Right now, there are no plans to fundamentally change the infrastructure or any of the components moving forward,” said Jenks Public Schools Executive Director of Communications Rob Loeber.
“I think the fact that [the planetarium] is going to remain for students, it’s going to be a place where kids learn, it’s still going to be a place where opportunities are created, it’s still going to be a place for students to discover, learn, and grow and I think that’s fantastic for our students, staff, and the community benefits from that in general,” said Loeber.
Members of the community rallied to keep the planetarium open for students.
“…This is still a win for our students and can be considered a win for the community to have this structure that’s been in place for as long as it has to be something that people take a lot of pride in,” Loeber said.
The president of the Astronomy Club of Tulsa shared his wishes for the facility to remain open to the public.
“I hope that they would reconsider their decision. I hope that they would see the value that it brings to the entire community,” said Jonathan Fussell, President of the Astronomy Club of Tulsa. “I hoped that the board would truly reconsider what they are cutting off to the entire public and that the students too, in fact, we saw a few students tonight continue to voice their opinions on having it open to the public.”
The Astronomy Club of Tulsa said if the school board does not allow them to use the facility, they will have to look at other places like the library or the Tulsa Planetarium.
