OCMAPS Trust to tour new Douglass High School
(January 9, 2006) – The Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area Public Schools (OCMAPS) Trust will tour the new $27 million Douglass High School at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, January 10. Trust members and media will board a bus at City Hall at 1 p.m.
Douglass is the first new high school completed in the 10-year, $470 million “MAPS for Kids” program that will replace or renovate 72 schools throughout the Oklahoma City Public School District I-89.
Douglass first opened to students in 1891 at a site on W. California, but the new 202,000 square-foot school replaces a building completed in 1954 at 900 N. Martin Luther King. The new school, designed by LWBP Architects, was built on the site of the previous school’s stadium. Ground was broken for the new facility on May 10, 2004. The new school will open to students on Wednesday, January 18.
The new campus is designed to accommodate 1200 students – up from a current enrollment of 784.
- 30 general classrooms
- eight science labs
- 24 specialty classrooms for drama, music, visual arts,
special education and other purposes - practice gym
- media center
- 1200-seat theater/auditorium
A new stadium to be completed next year will include seating for 6,000.
Voters approved the OCMAPS program November 13, 2001. The package included a temporary City sales tax for school capital improvements and a $180 million District I-89 School bond program. The tax, now at one cent, expires January 1, 2009. The sales tax proceeds go to schools with students who live in Oklahoma City. Seventy percent goes to District I-89 projects and 30% is allocated among suburban districts.
The City is handling the bricks-and-mortar aspects of “MAPS for Kids,” while the school districts manage the education aspects. A City Trust appointed by the Mayor authorizes all MAPS for Kids sales tax expenditures and administers the bond program through an agreement with the school district.
