Owasso board approves operating budget, hires construction manager for fifth‑grade center and OKs virtual‑learning framework

The Owasso Public Schools Board of Education on Monday approved the district's proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2025-26 and took several other votes, including contracting a construction manager for the new Owasso Fifth Grade Elementary Center and adopting a district distance‑learning framework for emergency use.

Superintendent Dr. Margaret Coates told the board the district is moving quickly to begin bond-funded projects after a recent successful bond election. "We are so grateful to the community of Owasso for going to the polls to show their support for Owasso Public Schools," Coates said, and said the district will begin work on projects "this spring."

The budget presentation, given to the board before the vote, laid out revenue and expenditure sources and highlighted several structural details. The finance presenter said general‑fund revenue is behind last year at this point by roughly half a million dollars, largely because a roughly $680,000 textbook payment that arrived in a prior year is being distributed across months this year. The presentation also noted that about 36% of the district's budgeted general‑fund revenue is expected to come from local property taxes and roughly 33% from the state funding formula; health insurance alone represents about 8.5% of general‑fund revenue and federal sources are less than 5%.

Board members were shown enrollment measures used in the state funding formula: the presenter said the district's average daily membership (ADM) is slightly less than 9,800 students and that weighted enrollment (which adds state weights for grade…