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Oklahoma City Public Schools Releases More Details About $30M Budget Cuts

The Oklahoma City Public Schools administration building.
Oklahoma Watch
The Oklahoma City Public Schools administration building.

Oklahoma City Public Schools released a more detailed breakdown of its massive budget cuts Thursday afternoon, showing specifically how cuts could affect students this school year.

The district’s fine arts budget will be slashed by 50 percent. The entire library media budget will be eliminated, which will impact the purchase of new resources for all schools. The elementary school budget will be reduced by $10 per student – from $25 to $15 – affecting funds for classroom supplies and other needs.

OKCPS carved $30 million out of its budget for next year due to what it calls a “catastrophic” budget crisis.

In order to deal with the cuts, the district is actively soliciting donations and volunteers.

In graduate school at the University of Montana, Emily Wendler focused on Environmental Science and Natural Resource reporting with an emphasis on agriculture. About halfway through her Master’s program a professor introduced her to radio and she fell in love. She has since reported for KBGA, the University of Montana’s college radio station and Montana’s PBS Newsbrief. She was a finalist in a national in-depth radio reporting competition for an investigatory piece she produced on campus rape. She also produced in-depth reports on wind energy and local food for Montana Public Radio. She is very excited to be working in Oklahoma City, and you can hear her work on all things from education to agriculture right here on KOSU.
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