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Oklahoma School of Science and Math seeks raises for graduate‑degree faculty and funding for dorm and HVAC repairs
Summary
OSSM president told the appropriations subcommittee the residential school is seeking salary increases for teachers left out of recent statewide pay raises, additional maintenance staff and funds for dormitory HVAC and roof repairs as enrollment returns to pre‑pandemic levels.
Tony Cornforth, president of the Oklahoma School of Science and Math, presented the school's 2026 budget requests to the Senate subcommittee, seeking salary adjustments for teachers, additional maintenance staff, and several capital repairs to student housing and campus buildings.
Cornforth said OSSM employs 25 teachers, all with graduate degrees and 18 with Ph.D.s, and that the school was excluded from two prior statewide teacher pay raises. He asked the legislature for a 10 percent personnel salary adjustment intended to bring faculty pay closer to state minimums and improve competitiveness with other districts; Cornforth said the raise would still leave three teachers below the state minimum without a small supplemental added to the request.
Cornforth also requested one maintenance technician (1 FTE) at an estimated $90,000 to support five buildings, a $70,000 increase for food service tied to growing enrollment, and $20,000 annually for chiller and boiler service agreements. On capital needs he requested funding to replace an aging residence-hall HVAC unit (presented in testimony as roughly $902,000), a gym roof replacement (assessment recommended replacement soon), and repair of a cracked dorm floor that is not structural (estimated $90,000). He said the package would address roughly 50–60 percent of deferred dorm maintenance carried when he took the job.
Senators asked about how many teachers the pay request would affect and whether merits were considered. Cornforth said the 10 percent request would apply across the agency (except for the president) and was intended to bring most teachers up toward the state minimum; the school added a modest amount to ensure the lowest-paid three reached the state minimum salary. He said the residential enrollment is recovering to pre‑COVID levels: recent classes regenerated a junior class of 76, a 52 percent increase over the prior year, and the residential campus is back toward the prior 140–150 students in peak years.
The subcommittee did not vote on the request during the hearing. Cornforth said the school planned a staggered approach to replacements—doing one dorm HVAC replacement at a time and staggering repainting—to spread capital costs over future years.
