Oklahoma City Public Schools will be undergoing some major changes before the new school year. Superintendent for Oklahoma City Public Schools, Rob Neu, has announced that there will be district-wide changes in staffing for the 2016-2017 school year.

Among these new changes, principals will be given new levels of authority and asked to make decisions on the new positions. The superintendent has noted that there may be up to 208 teachers that will lose their jobs (first will be teachers naturally leaving and then the focus will be on the newer teachers), which will save the district $8 million. This is primarily due to the statewide revenue shortfall that the state is currently experiencing. Although the school district has been able to get approval for the rainy day fund, it won’t prevent reductions for next year. Teachers should know by now whether or not their position will be cut for the upcoming school year.

Another potential change to the OKCPS district is a shortened calendar, however, the superintendent is against the 4-day week. The district also plans to continue to keep up with the mandated class sizes, even though the state hasn’t.

Personally, I think that the 4-day week won’t cause that much damage to the students as some of the other budget cuts that are being considered. I think it is more important to keep as many teachers as possible because more teachers = more students taught, and I believe that is the most important thing and hopefully that is the driving force behind all of the changes.

So give me the tea, what’s your opinion?