{"id":16217,"date":"2013-09-09T11:13:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T16:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=16217"},"modified":"2013-09-09T14:54:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T19:54:29","slug":"list-of-schools-unwilling-to-wait-for-government-action-on-tornado-shelters-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/09\/09\/list-of-schools-unwilling-to-wait-for-government-action-on-tornado-shelters-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"List of Schools Unwilling to Wait for Government Action on Tornado Shelters Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"HOPE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wesley Fryer \/ Flickr<\/p>\n<\/div>

It’s only been little more than three months since an EF5 tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., and devastated two schools. And already, the state’s public schools are responding.<\/p>

StateImpact<\/a> and partner station KGOU have reported<\/a> on a few school districts that are moving ahead with safe room construction, including Alex and Woodward.<\/p>

Now there’s a trend taking shape toward building safe rooms, and as\u00a0The Oklahoman’s<\/em> Tim Willert reports, schools aren’t waiting for help from the state or federal governments:<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Public Schools, the state’s largest district with 84 schools and 45,000 students, is considering safe rooms with new gym construction at up to 22 elementary schools, officials said.<\/p>

About six of the gyms are in the early stages of construction. All will be paid for with money remaining from a 2007 bond issue earmarked for new gym construction, according to Jim Burkey, the district’s chief operating officer.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The state government hasn’t made safe rooms at schools a priority<\/a>, and it didn’t look like it was going to do much more, even after the May tornadoes.<\/p>

But State Rep. Joe Dorman, R-Rush Springs, is starting an initiative petition that he hopes leads to a statewide vote over whether to amend the constitution to allow a bond issue to pay for safe rooms in schools. But that takes time.<\/p>

Districts unwilling to wait include Moore, Oakdale, Piedmont, Hennessey, Midwest City, and Mustang, all of which have safe rooms at least tentatively planned or already under construction.<\/p>

But most of the structures won’t just serve as tornado shelters, which Willert reports is key to schools getting the most bang for their buck.<\/p>\n

…schools officials throughout Oklahoma are considering whether to incorporate safe rooms into new gym and classroom construction.<\/p>

Safe rooms are considered more cost-effective than underground shelters, which require elevators and access for the disabled, and are not used except in emergencies…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership among Oklahoma\u2019s public radio stations and produces journalism in the public interest, essential to an informed electorate. Help support informative, in-depth journalism with a donation online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s only been little more than three months since an EF5 tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., destroying two schools in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":16231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492],"tags":[24,539],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16217"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16244,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16217\/revisions\/16244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}