Not all Tulsa Public Schools ready for first day of class

Tulsa Public Schools start the new year a week from Monday on August 20, but some school buildings still aren't ready.

Mayo Elementary is moving into the old Wilson Middle School building. This summer crews have been busy remodeling the school, but finishing the construction is coming down to the wire and some parents are getting a little nervous.

"There are some parents who are a little bit concerned, a little bit, you know, anxious about their children starting and things not being in the right place," Dani Bormann, president of Mayo's TPA, said.

Despite dozens of workers tackling the remaining construction work, painting, laying carpet and installing book shelves and cubbies for the children are just a few of the items on a long list of work left to finish.

"I think upstairs is a little bit further behind," Bormann said. "But hopefully, you know, they still have a week and a weekend, so hopefully that will get finished."

Bormann is confident, though, that the children will be safe and able to learn when they walk in the door.

"It's the details that are going to be left to finish up after the children have already started school," she said.

The situation is a bit stressful for teachers.

"Well, there's definitely still a lot left to do," Katie Najera, a kindergarten and pre-k teacher, said. "There's no doubt about that."

But Najera said as long as the big things are done she will make sure the kids are learning on day one.

"It's a great opportunity for the children to see how you handle problems," she said. "You can't be given a problem in life and just crumble. You have to be able to take a problem, problem solve it, and make the best of it."

Even though crews have been working 24 hours a day for much of the construction project, the reason crews are cutting it so close to the start of school is they are trying to finish a project that would normally take a full year in just 107 days.

But Bormann is staying positive.

"I have no doubt that they are going to be able to move on with the curriculum and the learning," she said. "It's just going to look a little different on the first day of school than it might a month into school."

Once construction is complete, a small army of parent volunteers plans to help the teachers set up their classrooms.

Sequoyah Elementary School is in a similar situation to Mayo's, as it moves into the old Cleveland Middle School building. But officials with TPS say work at Sequoyah will be complete by the first day of school.