Beyond The Bell: State Funding Struggle For Oklahoma City Public Schools

Oklahoma City Public Schools will be back in session in less than a week.

The state legislature boasts about the increase to educational funding. But there is a struggle to do more with less in the state's largest school district.

A one-page notice to school districts reveals how much state funding they'll get. A hundred million dollars sounds like a lot but for Oklahoma City, state's largest school district that continues to grow with the addition of 672 students next year.

It's almost $2 million more than the district received last year, but that doesn't even cover the cost of hiring addition staff for the projected growth.

Scott Randall, the district's Chief Financial Officer's goal is to stretch the budget to meet the variety of needs for the district's 43,000 students.

Since 2009, state funding for Oklahoma City Public School is still down about $5.6 million while the number of students in the district steadily grew by more than 4,000 kids.

The district relies on partnerships with community organizations to be able to keep up with what some of the surrounding school districts offer their students.

The need for more funding for Oklahoma City Public Schools will continue down the road as the district continues to grow. Randall says the district monitors the state budget negotiations closely, and looks for areas to find more money that lawmakers can allocate to education.