Tulsa Public Schools Closed 5/13/10

[StoopTroup]

Due to lack of power in some areas. I'm sure sme of it due to debris in so many areas. Looks like we got some tree damage and a bit of structure damage too.

Tree damage happens when you have trees OKC. Tulsa>OKC. :D

[Okla-homey]

Due to lack of power in some areas. I'm sure sme of it due to debris in so many areas. Looks like we got some tree damage and a bit of structure damage too.

Tree damage happens when you have trees OKC. Tulsa>OKC. :D

Over the five years I've lived here, the only thing I've not seen TPS close over is fog and heavy dew. Bunch of weenies. How about all the families with one or both parents who are paid by the hour, one of which now have to stay home and miss a day's wages because their kid(s) can't go to school today?

Not so the overpaid, salaried educrats who make these decisions. They get paid the same whether they are at home or not.

[soonersponge]

Over the five years I've lived here, the only thing I've not seen TPS close over is fog and heavy dew. Bunch of weenies. How about all the families with one or both parents who are paid by the hour, one of which now have to stay home and miss a day's wages because their kid(s) can't go to school today?

Not so the overpaid, salaried educrats who make these decisions. They get paid the same whether they are at home or not.

How would they feed everyone and do a lot of the work with no power?

[NormanPride]

Kids are tough! They can live without food for a day! And who needs light to study?

[My Opinion Matters]

Over the five years I've lived here, the only thing I've not seen TPS close over is fog and heavy dew. Bunch of weenies. How about all the families with one or both parents who are paid by the hour, one of which now have to stay home and miss a day's wages because their kid(s) can't go to school today?

Not so the overpaid, salaried educrats who make these decisions. They get paid the same whether they are at home or not.

I know! It's like...kids are the responsibilty of their parents, and not schools, or something. How annoying!

[IB4OU2]

Where did all this damage occur? Midtown survived unscathed.

[NormanPride]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100513_11_0_rmrhtw740425

[StoopTroup]

The blooms from my pecan trees are everywhere. I don't know what we're going to do. Hopefully the Mayor will send out a crew with some rakes and get the clean up started. We've got water and electricity and gas but the blooms are dangerous. You could slip and fall easily. Cars in the streets will crush the blooms and make the roadways very dangerous. Add to the fact that when they hit every year...my allergies go crazy. I think maybe Obama should get the Surgeon General to look into getting me some relief soon.

[OUMallen]

Y'all be REAL careful of all those straight-line winds now, ya'hear?

[NormanPride]

Hey, straight line winds took out half city hall a few years back. Well, it wasn't city hall back then... but you know what I mean. :D

[Breadburner]

When did all this occur.....I guess I was dead to the world.....

[StoopTroup]

Around 4:30-5 am

[Okla-homey]

How would they feed everyone and do a lot of the work with no power?

They have these things called generators.

TPS could jettision a handful of their $100K a year administrators, who are as useless as man-nipples, and buy enough for all their flippin' schools.

[StoopTroup]

They have these things called generators.

TPS could jettision a handful of their $100K a year administrators, who are as useless as man-nipples, and buy enough for all their flippin' schools.

I nominate you for Superintendent. Tulsa needs you my friend.

[Stitch Face]

Take the wood from downed trees and burn it for light/cooking.

[GottaHavePride]

They have these things called generators.

TPS could jettision a handful of their $100K a year administrators, who are as useless as man-nipples, and buy enough for all their flippin' schools.

Generators are great. But they won't clear trees and light poles out of streets for school buses to run. Or repair roofs of buildings.


Tulsa area schools

The weather led officials from Tulsa Public Schools and Union Public Schools to cancel classes for the day because of widespread power outages, officials said.

Eighteen schools in the Tulsa district are without power. Officials are still assessing all the damage, but the stadium lights at Memorial High School did blow over into the street, spokeswoman Tami Marler said.

McClure Elementary School, near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue, had a tree fall onto an A/C unit, causing damage to the roof and unit, she said.

Two schools in the Union district have no power, and one was difficult to get to because of downed trees in the neighborhood. Some bus drivers also had trouble getting in because of debris in the neighborhoods, spokeswoman Gretchen Haas-Bethel said.

Meanwhile, outside the Discovery School of Tulsa, dozens of parents and administrators walked among scraps of the building’s roof that were strewn across the playground.

Principal Fevzi Simsek said the charter school, near 48th Street and 72nd East Avenue, will be closed until at least Monday while administrators review damage reports and decide if the building can be reopened.

Large chunks of foam insulation and roofing material were blown nearly 100 yards away from the building and some classrooms were damaged by water. Simsek said the building remains structurally intact and he computers and other electronics are salvageable.

The Schusterman Clinic at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa is open and seeing patients, because it has a generator.

The University of Oklahoma-Tulsa is open and finals will go ahead as scheduled, even though the university does not have power, spokeswoman Tracy Kennedy said.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100513_11_0_rmrhtw740425

[Okla-homey]

Generators are great. But they won't clear trees and light poles out of streets for school buses to run. Or repair roofs of buildings.

Four schools damaged. 18 without power. Yet they cancel school throughout the district -- IOW, at the remaining 90 schools too. By all means, cancel school because 20% of the school buildings have problems

[My Opinion Matters]

This thread is proof that people will argue about literally anything over the internet.

[IB4OU2]

Generators are great. But they won't clear trees and light poles out of streets for school buses to run. Or repair roofs of buildings.


What about those new Swiss Army generators?

[Soonerus]

This thread is proof that people will argue about literally anything over the internet.

I disagree, they will not !!!

[badger]

They literally were teaching with flashlights at some local schools. There are still about 25k without power here. They've also moved several state baseball tourney sites because of all of this crap, which I learned this morning just barely missed NP and me by maybe a mile.

The Southern Hills area apparently has a lot of damage. What they originally thought was just high winds turned out to be an F-2 (wtf is this "EF-2" crap?) tornado in Sapulpa.

Poor Oklahoma. I hope this was the last throes of this crap.

[GottaHavePride]

The Southern Hills area apparently has a lot of damage. What they originally thought was just high winds turned out to be an F-2 (wtf is this "EF-2" crap?) tornado in Sapulpa.

Poor Oklahoma. I hope this was the last throes of this crap.

Enhanced Fujita scale. Basically, they revised the original Fujita scale because it was somewhat ambiguous. Also, they found out that the damage associated with each level of the scale actually occurred at much lower wind speeds than they thought would be necessary.

Put another way - a few tornadoes (like the May 3rd 1999 tornado) turned up that were bigger and nastier than the old Fujita scale thought possible. So they had to revise their numbers.

EDIT: also, Homey, the district's decisions have to be all or nothing. It's regulations for them. If they cancel school anywhere they have to shut down the whole district to do it. Otherwise they'd have to re-route the kids from the closed schools to operating schools so they could attend classes. And re-routing 20% of the students in an entire district is a logistical nightmare. Can't be done overnight. Districts hate it when ONE school is under construction and they have to re-locate those students, even when they have a year to get ready.

[OU-HSV]

I just saw on the news a bit ago there was an EF-2 not too far from me. I had some high wind at my house, but it was straight line, but it was definitely strong.

[tommieharris91]

I just saw on the news a bit ago there was an EF-2 not too far from me. I had some high wind at my house, but it was straight line, but it was definitely strong.

I coulda sworn there was one by me too this mornin. I didn't a siren this morning.

[OU-HSV]

I coulda sworn there was one by me too this mornin. I didn't a siren this morning.

We never can hear the sirens at our neighborhood...I've even contacted the city about it before. This particular storm would have been bad if the actual tornado hit my house because I literally didn't wake up until the wind was pounding my house, so a siren would've helped big time if that would've been the case.
I'm going to contact the city again soon about it, it's simply unsafe.

[Leroy Lizard]

EDIT: also, Homey, the district's decisions have to be all or nothing. It's regulations for them. If they cancel school anywhere they have to shut down the whole district to do it. Otherwise they'd have to re-route the kids from the closed schools to operating schools so they could attend classes. And re-routing 20% of the students in an entire district is a logistical nightmare. Can't be done overnight. Districts hate it when ONE school is under construction and they have to re-locate those students, even when they have a year to get ready.

Another argument against big districts.

[Okla-homey]

EDIT: also, Homey, the district's decisions have to be all or nothing. It's regulations for them. If they cancel school anywhere they have to shut down the whole district to do it. Otherwise they'd have to re-route the kids from the closed schools to operating schools so they could attend classes. And re-routing 20% of the students in an entire district is a logistical nightmare. Can't be done overnight. Districts hate it when ONE school is under construction and they have to re-locate those students, even when they have a year to get ready.

Why, pray tell, are these college graduates who administer school districts, incapable of determining; "Schools A, B, C, are damaged. Therefore, we shall notify parents and students at those schools school is cancelled until further notice. As to Schools D through Z, business as usual."

[Mjcpr]

We never can hear the sirens at our neighborhood...I've even contacted the city about it before. This particular storm would have been bad if the actual tornado hit my house because I literally didn't wake up until the wind was pounding my house, so a siren would've helped big time if that would've been the case.
I'm going to contact the city again soon about it, it's simply unsafe.

They said on the news last night that the sirens are warnings for anybody who might be outside; they are not necessarily designed to wake you up from a dead sleep.

[My Opinion Matters]

A one-day cancellation of classes due to power outages is certainly a provocative enough issue to still be OUTRAGED about it a full day later.

Won't someone please think of the children?!

[Okla-homey]

A one-day cancellation of classes due to power outages is certainly a provocative enough issue to still be OUTRAGED about it a full day later.

Won't someone please think of the children?!

My outrage is somewhat abated by the happy news I read in this morning's paper that 286 TPS teachers received their notices yesterday that their contracts for next year will not be renewed due to budgetary constraints.

Which means some of those adminsitrative fat cats might have to saddle-up and actually start teaching kids again instead of sitting in their offices contemplating their navels all day.

[Mjcpr]

My outrage is somewhat abated by the happy news I read in this morning's paper that 286 TPS teachers received their notices yesterday that their contracts for next year will not be renewed due to budgetary constraints.

Which means some of those adminsitrative fat cats might have to saddle-up and actually start teaching kids again instead of sitting in their offices contemplating their navels all day.

I don't know why you would be happy about that, the only result will be more students per teacher.

[Okla-homey]

I don't know why you would be happy about that, the only result will be more students per teacher.

Because perhaps someday, people will get angry enough over our failed public education system in this country to bust the NEA and state teachers unions and do what needs to be done to begin to fix the system.

[badger]

An EF-0 hit about a mile from where NP and I live. It damaged the rich people golf course Tiger won at a few years ago, as well as a public one close by. It ripped part of the roof off of a shopping center that was a bit older. It mainly did tree damage, uprooting some, un-branching branches elsewhere.

We were fortunate here in Tulsa - Sapulpa had it a lot worse.

[StoopTroup]

My Kids seemed smarter having spent the morning with me yesterday. :D

[GottaHavePride]

Why, pray tell, are these college graduates who administer school districts, incapable of determining; "Schools A, B, C, are damaged. Therefore, we shall notify parents and students at those schools school is cancelled until further notice. As to Schools D through Z, business as usual."

I don't know what reasoning is behind it, but that's how school districts work. All the kids have to receive the same number of instructional minutes per day - the only way they could do that is by busing kids from a closed school to an operating school and carrying on. As I said, that isn't happening on one day's notice.


Because perhaps someday, people will get angry enough over our failed public education system in this country to bust the NEA and state teachers unions and do what needs to be done to begin to fix the system.

It's not the NEA and teacher's unions. (OK, partly the unions, but if teachers weren't paid less than managers at McDonalds the teacher's unions wouldn't need to fight like rabid wolves...)

Anyway, I put the blame solidly on administration. The bureaucracy of administration in the public school system is so wildly inefficient - not to mention the ridiculous array of assessments and "standards" they have to teach to are idiotic. I mean, with No Child Left Behind schools are penalized if all students aren't making acceptable progress. Which means mentally handicapped students who can't even tie their own shoes and go to the bathroom by themselves have to pass these assessments, too.

Schools have to pay someone to read these tests to these kids because they can't read well enough to take a reading comprehension exam. WTF sense does that make? They CAN'T READ, so for a READING COMPREHENSION test someone has to READ THE TEST TO THEM. How about just saying they can't read and will never be able to read? Oh, because for some reason separating severely handicapped kids into a special facility is discriminatory and will get a district's federal funding yanked. Moronic on all levels.

[badger]

It had nothing to do with the weather, but another huge bombshell hit TPS when in addition to being closed due to extreme-extreme weather, the first-year teachers (not including Teach for America teachers, brought in by grants and private donations) were giving non-renewal notices.

Link (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=332&articleid=20100514_19_A1_TulsaP296421)

The worst part was that not everyone got the non-renewal notice in person, because school was out yesterday. I mean... wow. That's like getting a "Dear John" letter, or worse, e-mail.

[StoopTroup]

1)Schools have to pay someone to read these tests to these kids because they can't read well enough to take a reading comprehension exam. WTF sense does that make? They CAN'T READ, so for a READING COMPREHENSION test someone has to READ THE TEST TO THEM. 2)How about just saying they can't read and will never be able to read? Oh, because for some reason separating severely handicapped kids into a special facility is discriminatory and will get a district's federal funding yanked. Moronic on all levels.

I might disagree a bit with you on the Handicap thing.

I think handicap Kids...not all...but many...really just want folks to recognize when they need help but to leave them the hell alone if they don't. I know you said you thought it would be great if Administration would leave things alone and then pay the Teachers more dough instead of McDs wages....but you lose me when you start talking about having to pay someone to help handicap kids. IMO there is and always has been enough money to have great facilities...well paid teachers and even dough to help handicapped and disadvantaged children.

It's the bureaucratic and administrative mismanagement of it all that continues to leave kids uneducated and stupid.

Challenge a kid today and don't expect someone to pay you for it....do it because it's the right thing to do. If you need more dough....get a job doing something else and later teach? Would that be possible? Have the older and wiser people really given up on the education system just because it isn't worth it? Doing that left the Younger over-educated dimwits to run things and it has now become a cluster **** of epic proportions IMO.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you every young teacher should be be canned....but the best Teachers my kids have had have been Teachers who are able to address the individual needs of each student in every one of their classes and keep the Administrative and Bureaucratic side of the system from having an effect on the well being of the child as much as possible.

I know it's tough...but Teachers shouldn't gripe so damn much when they aren't cleaning up or helping to run out the real problems. You can't continue to ask Tax Payers for money and sympathy if some of you aren't figuring out ways to overcome or maybe even reform this mess. You just can't have it both ways....at least from me anyway.

I hope all of you who do this fantastic work with our kids continue to try and improve the system you are a part of and start a reform movement to get to the bottom of the mismanagement of the Schools systems.

[StoopTroup]

Also....

Manadatory Drug Test/hair testing should be done on every teacher once prior to the School year.

[badger]

I don't know why you would be happy about that, the only result will be more students per teacher.

Also, if there are indeed happy people about this, allow me to burst your happiness bubble -

This is just a precautionary measure against continued budget cuts.

Still happy? Ok, how bout this:

First-year teachers were a greater majority of cuts, but there were also vets who were out on long leaves of absences cut as well.

STILL happy? Ok...

Because this is precautionary, it is highly likely that many teachers who got the notice are not going to be unemployed but in fact will return to TPS if the budget allows, and it will allow.

WHY DO I STILL SEE YOU SMILING?! Ok, the kicker!

The first ones hired back, as per union rules, will be the ones with more experience, regardless of what subjects taught, job performance, etc etc etc.

So basically, TPS is not letting 286 teachers go. They are just preparing for a worst-case scenario, and it will not be a worst-case scenario. Ahhh... but I see you rejoice at do-nothing administrators having to return to teaching? Please realize that they've already cut a lot of that out in previous budget cuts.

End result = Fewer teachers, but not 286 fewer.

[NormanPride]

I might disagree a bit with you on the Handicap thing.

I think handicap Kids...not all...but many...really just want folks to recognize when they need help but to leave them the hell alone if they don't. I know you said you thought it would be great if Administration would leave things alone and then pay the Teachers more dough instead of McDs wages....but you lose me when you start talking about having to pay someone to help handicap kids. IMO there is and always has been enough money to have great facilities...well paid teachers and even dough to help handicapped and disadvantaged children.

It's the bureaucratic and administrative mismanagement of it all that continues to leave kids uneducated and stupid.

Challenge a kid today and don't expect someone to pay you for it....do it because it's the right thing to do. If you need more dough....get a job doing something else and later teach? Would that be possible? Have the older and wiser people really given up on the education system just because it isn't worth it? Doing that left the Younger over-educated dimwits to run things and it has now become a cluster **** of epic proportions IMO.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you every young teacher should be be canned....but the best Teachers my kids have had have been Teachers who are able to address the individual needs of each student in every one of their classes and keep the Administrative and Bureaucratic side of the system from having an effect on the well being of the child as much as possible.

I know it's tough...but Teachers shouldn't gripe so damn much when they aren't cleaning up or helping to run out the real problems. You can't continue to ask Tax Payers for money and sympathy if some of you aren't figuring out ways to overcome or maybe even reform this mess. You just can't have it both ways....at least from me anyway.

I hope all of you who do this fantastic work with our kids continue to try and improve the system you are a part of and start a reform movement to get to the bottom of the mismanagement of the Schools systems.

What is your average teacher supposed to do with a class of 30 fourth graders in which four are almost un-teachable? Where one talks like a robot and screams until he's hoarse if he has to do anything, one is so low that he can barely write his own name, one is so ADHD that an aide has to sit next to him every minute to make sure he pays attention to what is going on, and one who is so emotionally disturbed that the vice principals are called in every day to keep him from biting pieces off of the other children? What is the teacher supposed to do in that case? What about the 26 other kids that cannot learn in an environment like that?

Some kids just don't belong in a regular classroom. They're not second-class citizens, but they can't be allowed to disrupt classrooms constantly just for appearances. No child left behind is an utter failure, and is killing the education system in ways the idiots on capitol hill cannot even fathom.

[Okla-homey]

What is your average teacher supposed to do with a class of 30 fourth graders in which four are almost un-teachable? Where one talks like a robot and screams until he's hoarse if he has to do anything, one is so low that he can barely write his own name, one is so ADHD that an aide has to sit next to him every minute to make sure he pays attention to what is going on, and one who is so emotionally disturbed that the vice principals are called in every day to keep him from biting pieces off of the other children? What is the teacher supposed to do in that case?

Find another line of work, preferably in a private school where they don't have to put up with such nonsense.

And for the record, I agree with you, the public system has waaay too much baggage to be effective and efficient. I also beleive "mainstreaming" kids with significant mental or behavioral challenges (please note I did not call them "handicapped") is not always the way to go. But its the law of the land. That said, we really need to shake the etch-a-sketch and start over.

Unfortunately, the folks who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo are running the country nowadays. And before you go all "that's just more partisan hackery Homey" on me, just ask yourself, do teachers in the US generally vote donk or elephant?

[NormanPride]

Find another line of work, preferably in a private school where they don't have to put up with such nonsense.

And for the record, I agree with you, the public system has waaay too much baggage to be effective and efficient. I also beleive "mainstreaming" kids with significant mental or behavioral challenges (please note I did not call them "handicapped") is not always the way to go. But its the law of the land. That said, we really need to shake the etch-a-sketch and start over.

Unfortunately, the folks who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo are running the country nowadays. And before you go all "that's just more partisan hackery Homey" on me, just ask yourself, do teachers in the US generally vote donk or elephant?

Well, yeah, the whole thing needs to be re-thought, but that doesn't mean that RIGHT NOW we can't change just that one little thing. I mean, this is a fairly recent change that has screwed up a lot of things. It's not inherent in the system that kids who have no business being in a standard classroom are forced in there.

And as to your point to "finding a new job", that's exactly what is happening. Nothing but new teachers, hardly any good ones, and all the old ones are giving up.

[Curly Bill]

Some kids just don't belong in a regular classroom. They're not second-class citizens, but they can't be allowed to disrupt classrooms constantly just for appearances. No child left behind is an utter failure, and is killing the education system in ways the idiots on capitol hill cannot even fathom.

You sir, are correct. Our one size fits all system is a failure.

Also FAIL, is our insistence on being more concerned about the kids/parents feelers than we are about the little sh*ts actually learning something useful.

[GottaHavePride]

The #1 problem with the school system now is the sheer number of parents that think public schools relieve them of any and all responsibility of actually raising their own children.

[Leroy Lizard]

"I met with my three teachers, and every single one of them burst into tears — big tears. Lots and lots of tears," said Eugene Field Elementary School Principal Cindi Hemm. "It hurts my heart. Some of these people on a scale of 1 to 10 are a 10."

Now why are we firing our 10s?

Read on...


The school district's negotiated agreement with the Tulsa teachers union requires that any vacancies on their faculties first be filled with trimmed teachers who have "career status" — or at least four years' service with Tulsa Public Schools.

[Okla-homey]

The #1 problem with the school system now is the sheer number of parents that think public schools relieve them of any and all responsibility of actually raising their own children.

I generally agree, but with one adjustment to the above. It should say, "the #1 problem with the school system now is the sheer number of single parents that think and act as though public schools relieve them of any and all responsibility of actually raising their own children."

It is indisputable that single parentage is the most common characteristic among problem kids. Particularly children born to single moms. They tend to be poorer, less ready for school by first grade, and generally less likely to succeed. That's not to say their mom's don't care about their kids, it's just the cold hard truth that children who are raised in two parent homes generally do better and are better adjusted. It doesn't "take a village to raise a child," it takes two committed parents.

Therefore, until we turn our illegitimate birthrate and divorce rate around, we will continue to produce millions of kids each year who are statistically likely to be duds in school.