Positive Tomorrows Puts Finishing Touches On New Facility

A school that serves homeless Oklahoma City students is putting the final touches on its new facility. The staff at Positive Tomorrows have been anxiously waiting for the $15 million dollar project near the state fairgrounds to be completed. Their current

Wednesday, November 20th 2019, 7:51 am

By: Ashley Holden

Positive Tomorrows Puts Finishing Touches On New Facility

A school that serves homeless Oklahoma City students is putting the final touches on its new facility.

The staff at Positive Tomorrows have been anxiously waiting for the $15 million dollar project near the state fairgrounds to be completed.

Their current building is much smaller and only allows the non-profit to serve around 70 children from Pre-K to mostly 5th graders.

President and Principal of Positive Tomorrows Susan Agel said just to get their students off-site for PE took hours. Now the school has their own gym, a library, kitchen and large playground.

Administrators have also planned in enough space to help more students. Their goal is to first expand with an early head start program, that will serve kids from birth to three years old, and then find funding to help some older children.

"It's our goal to eventually add 7th and 8th grade, said Agel. "So that's a lot of funding that we have to find, because every classroom costs about $120,000 a year just in staffing costs."

At the moment they don't publicize where their current school is for safety purposes. But they've added security features at the new school.

"The architect for the building is an expert in school security, and that's one of the things he's brought to it," said Agel.

The principal said the building is secure and they are very focused on keeping all their students and staff safe.

The Positive Tomorrow students also had a hand in planning the new facility.

Ahead of construction, the architect had the kids draw pictures of what they wanted in their school. Some children had typical requests, and others reached for the stars with suggestions like a light saber dueling room. But many of those drawing were used to a create a wallpaper that now hangs in at least one space in the new building.

Administrators said they have most of their offices moved in to the new facility.

A few days before Thanksgiving staff will move in to their classroom and kids will be in their classrooms the following week.

For more information on Positive Tomorrows, head to the non-profit's official website.

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