For Immediate Release:

3/8/2018

OKCPS Principals stand in solidarity with Teachers

Contact: Greg Frederick, Oklahoma City Public Schools, (405) 208-9811, gtfrederick@okcps.org
Principal, U.S. Grant High School / President, AFSA-OCBA, AFL-CIO Local 79

On behalf of the Executive Board of the Oklahoma City Building Administrators (OCBA), we support our
Teacher colleagues in their effort to advance a budget, or promote legislation, that would increase
funding for schools and increase salaries for certified school personnel.

In a survey of our building Principals, 76 percent of respondents supported a job action, in the form of
cancelling classes if necessary, in order to elicit a change from our state legislature who, in the last
decade, have been unable or unwilling to fully fund public education. In doing so, legislators have not
only created a teacher shortage crisis in the state of Oklahoma but have also devalued the education
profession to the point where educators and their supporters across the state now see no recourse but
to bring us to the brink of school closures statewide. This is an action of last resort.

As building Principals, it is our duty to provide the resources necessary for Teachers to give the students
in their classrooms a quality education. The most valuable resource available to us are the Teachers
themselves. Research has shown that the most impactful relationship to a students’ academic
achievement is having an effective Teacher in their classroom. Increasingly, we cannot provide this
resource.

Due to a lack of funding to public education and failure to keep pace with regional salary requirements,
Oklahoma teachers are leaving the state and, in some cases, the profession altogether. Without
adequate funding, we cannot recruit and retain the best teachers, our most valuable resource in
education. This is not sustainable and deprives our students of the education they deserve.

We encourage our state leadership, and specifically our elected lawmakers, to act swiftly and avoid a
shutdown by fully funding educational services and enacting salary increases for our Teachers for the
good of our state and ALL Oklahoma students.

Greg Frederick, OKCPS Principal/President OCBA

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