OKC Students Back To School, Experiencing Budget Cuts First Hand

It may be the heat of the summer but school is now back in session for Oklahoma City Public School students. Students started back Monday and for the first time they are seeing the impact of those big budget cuts.

“It’s going to be a challenging year,” said new superintendent Aurora Lora, who just took over the district's main job this summer.

Over the summer, the district instituted $30 million in budget cuts that will be felt in the classroom.

“Because of the budget cuts class sizes have increased, school budgets have been slashed so they have less money for materials and supplies and in general less administrative support for schools,” said Lora.

Lora says elementary class sizes have increased on average by one student. The secondary level teacher caseload jumped by 10 students. In addition, two schools have closed and start times for seven others have changed in order to run fewer buses. Buildings no longer have on-site maintenance, so issues like A/C problems may take longer to resolve.

And the district had to delay or cancel all textbook purchases this year.