Published: May 09, 2008 09:45 am            

Regents approve charter school

NORMAN, Okla. — The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents approved an agreement to sponsor a charter school in south Oklahoma City at its regular meeting Thursday afternoon.

The agreement will allow OU and Santa Fe South Schools Inc. to collaborate on kindergarten through fifth grade education, according to the board’s agenda. OU would sponsor the new K-5 school, receiving funds (based on enrollment numbers) from the state Department of Education and then giving that money to the charter school.

“We’ll be fully reimbursed for our costs … through state appropriations,” OU President David Boren said at the regents’ meeting.

The elementary school will be in south Oklahoma City, in an area of low income, he said.

This is the first agreement between OU and a charter school since the state legislature changed the laws to allow universities to sponsor a charter school, OU Provost Nancy Mergler said. More than one school applied for OU sponsorship, but the agreement with Santa Fe South Schools Inc. was a natural choice, she said.

OU’s K20 Center, the Writing Center and the College of Education all have worked on projects with the existing Santa Fe South middle school and high school, she said. Plus, the director of Santa Fe South, Chris Brewster, is an OU alumnus.

“It’s a really, I think, a good place for us to have this first agreement,” Boren said.

Also at the meeting, the regents unanimously approved all 47 OU agenda items in a two-and-a-half hour meeting.

One item, the approval of a maximum construction price for Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center, was inaccurate in the published agenda. The price approved by the regents was $62.6 million rather than the $65.6 million on the other agenda.

The Board of Regents also passed a resolution honoring Molly Shi Boren for the successful completion of the university’s reforestation campaign in the wake of the December ice storm.

“I think that the true test of a real community is what they do in a time of crisis,” Boren said when she accepted the honor. About 1,445 people contributed to the effort, she said.

“And I accept this today on behalf of all those people; It was truly a community effort,” she said.



Julianna Parker writes for the Norman (Okla.) Transcript.