I have two children in Tulsa Public Schools, Eva, 7 and Braden, 11. They are both at Eisenhower International School and are getting an excellent education. At the same time, I have talked to other parents, and seen the news stories about various challenges facing the district, and I know that not every parent feels the same way. I have been honored to have been asked to serve as “Principal for a Day” for three years in a row at three very different Tulsa elementary schools (Eisenhower, Sequoyah and Lindbergh), and it has helped highlight for me that very diverse challenges and circumstances that each of those excellent principals is facing every day.  I wanted to get more involved because I want to help ensure that my children continue to have access to excellent public schools, but more importantly, because I wanted to help ensure EVERY Tulsa child has just as good of opportunities.

We are dealing with a rapidly changing and increasingly complicated work environment, and if we want our school system to be competitive, we need leaders who are willing to look at new ideas and innovations. I also believe that we need more participation in the School Board from parents with children currently in the school system who understand first-hand the impact of decisions they make.


Safety – Continuing to ensure that our children are secure and safe at every school in Tulsa.

Teacher effectiveness – Supporting programs that reward the most effective teachers, and provide the resources to develop those who need improvement. Every child deserves an excellent teacher in every class, every day.

Fiscal responsibility – Our state funding prospects appear grim for the immediate future, and it is essential that we determine how to be more efficient with our money, while continuing to look for new partnerships and funding opportunities. The resources in the classroom must be the top priority – the teachers, the learning materials, the facilities and the technology.

Achievement  – Tulsa’s dropout rate has been improving, but is still too high, and even among those who graduate, too many students are not going on to college or other training after high school. We all pay the price of having too many unemployable young people, and we have to continue to find better ways to address this problem. 

Transparent accountability – As we look at new (and old) programs, we must ensure that we establish measureable goals, that we continually assess our progress at every school, and communicate results honestly to our customers. Standardized test scores are an important measure of achievement, but should not be the only way.

Parental involvement – Parental involvement is one of the keys to the success of many of our best schools, and we need to find more ways to engage parents at all schools – encouraging their questions, harnessing their energy, asking for their support.  The input of parents also should be welcomed at the district-wide level, and there should be processes in place for parents to readily communicate with school and district administration and the board when needed. 

Improving image – Despite the challenges TPS faces as an urban school district with an 83 percent poverty rate among its students, we have tremendous success stories. We have some of Oklahoma’s best and brightest teachers and students, some of its most innovative programs, and its highest-achieving schools – and we need to promote those positive stories as often as we can.



Stronger ties between schools and their neighborhoods -- TPS has been doing a good job on improving  customer service, but it is important to remember that while students and parents are the most important customers, they are not the only ones. ALL Tulsans are customers of Tulsa Public Schools, and we need to strengthen the relationships between every school and the neighborhood around them. The majority of households do not have a child in Tulsa Public Schools, but they need to understand why it matters to them that our schools succeed. Without excellent schools, all of our property values go down, without a well-trained workforce we can’t attract new business, without educated young adults with a good future ahead of them, our crime rates will go up.

I would like to see the district work to educate and involve all citizens in its success, and I would like to see individual schools reach out to their neighborhoods to find helpful volunteers, forge relationships and build friendships.

Better use of technology – The technology that is showing the best results – be it Smart Boards, teacher laptops, videoconference class sessions, communication via social networking – should be made available to all students. Technology also can be used to more effectively communicate and involve with parents, giving them easy ways to keep up with what their children are working on, and quickly notifying them when there are problems that need their attention. Teachers and administrators at every school should be trained to use email, social networking, web-based databases and other low-cost means to communicate with parents in addition to traditional methods.



I think well-run charter schools can be an effective part of a strong public education system. They can complement TPS schools, and, like any other good public school, hopefully the best of them will spur us on to do an even better job ourselves. 



Testing is necessary, and it can be one measure of how well students are learning, but it should not be the only measure of success. A good teacher can teach a student to take a test well, but if that is all we ask a teacher to do, that student may not actually be learning the skills necessary to succeed as an adult.