Nichols Hills Elementary School Won't Be Ready For First Day

Classes begin August 1 for Oklahoma City Public Schools, but West Nichols Hills Elementary is clearly nowhere near ready for students.  

A district spokesperson says construction workers are at least one or two months behind schedule. News 9 has learned this is a recurring problem year after year.

In October, workers began renovating and adding on to West Nichols Hills Elementary. The $3.7 million project is part of  MAPS for Kids and was supposed to be complete by the first day of school. OnTuesday, however, parents and teachers were told that wouldn't be happening.

"Most of the parents that I talked to are just frustrated that they didn't get information out to us sooner," Christi Rosell, mother of a 3-year-old student at the school, said.

"We were told that we would be able to start here and we just found out yesterday that we would be moving," West Nichols Hills teacher Allison Homsey said.

Students will start the year at Greystone Upper Elementary, about three miles to the north. The district says it took a while to find a place to relocate to, adjust bus routes and school times and make other necessary changes.

But this isn't the first time the district has had to do this. Construction on MAPS for Kids projects routinely runs behind schedule.

"Anything from supplies to manpower to weather; there's a lot of different factors that come into play in regards to construction," Oklahoma City Public Schools spokesperson Tierney Tinnin said.

Still, all 24 schools in the Norman school district underwent some type of construction with their bond issue. They are all set to begin right on schedule for first day of school.

Tinnin says the Oklahoma City school district is confident workers are working as hard as they can to get students back in the right building as soon as possible.

Parents, teachers, and administrators all agree that when all this is finally done, they are happy to have a new school and are glad to have someplace safe to go August 1.

The school district says it hopes students and teachers will be able to move into the new building by the end of the semester.