The Tulsa School Board voted on January 22 to approve a recommendation by Superintendent Deborah Gist to close four elementary schools to save money in light of a $20 million budget shortfall.

Those elementary schools are Wright, Jones, Grimes and Mark Twain. Students at those schools will head elsewhere for the fall semester. Mark Twain will be consolidated into Wayman Tisdale Fine Arts Academy. It is anticipated that closing those schools will save the district up to $3 million.

Last week, TPS told 84 district office employees that they were recommending that their jobs be eliminated. And school officials say more cuts will be necessary to make up the shortfall.

TPS will adjust staffing that will increase the class size in elementary schools to from 23 to 24 students per teacher. But even with that change, about half of those classes will have fewer than 24 students.

The board also approved converting three junior high schools – Memorial, Central and Rogers – into 6th-8th-grade middle schools beginning in the fall. They now have only 7th and 8th graders. This will end the 6th grades in Burroughs, Emerson, Academy Central, Wayman Tisdale, Key, Marshall, Salk and Sequoyah elementaries.