Educate Oklahoma: Changing Demographics

<p>A Moore school principal said what's happened at her school has happened at many other Oklahoma schools.&nbsp;</p>

Wednesday, August 31st 2016, 10:44 pm

By: Karl Torp


A Moore school principal said what's happened at her school has happened at many other Oklahoma schools.

“It used to be a very affluent area,” Sky Ranch Elementary principal Debra Hendrix said.

As metro areas grow, schools once considered to be in the suburbs now share challenges of those in the inner city.

Nearly 70 percent of students are on the free and reduced lunch program.

“We have students that live in single family homes with both parents. That’s the minority now, not the norm,” she said.

Distractions outside school are now common place.

Hendrix said DHS gets called out to Sky Ranch about five times a week and parents have been arrested on school grounds for being high on drugs.

“One year I was principal, I attended nine parent funeral and none of those (parents) died from natural causes,” Hendrix said.

Sky Ranch Elementary is diverse. Of its 700 students, a third of them are bilingual. Hendrix said four different languages are spoken.

We’re having to work with translators these days. I didn’t ever have to work with translators when I started teaching,” Hendrix said.

Growing class sizes are another concern for administrators. At Sky Ranch Elementary, the largest class size is 32 students.

Even with all the obstacles, Sky Ranch Elementary as gone from a D to a B school in four years.

It's a particular point of pride for Hendrix and what is now a high progress school.

“We look at every child and we meet them where they are and take them and we help them reach that next level of success,” Hendrix said. 

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