Seven Statements on Saving Cherokee School

1. I am a proud graduate of Tulsa Public Schools, from Cherokee Elementary, from Monroe Jr High, and from McLain High School. I am a resident of Tulsa Schools who moved back here from Owasso so my daughter could be in the school district. I have helped fund and start the McLain School Foundation and love being a part of the McLain initiative. I am part of a Partner in Education group active at Cherokee throughout the year and as coordinator of the full summer long child nutrition program at Cherokee. I am not objective I know when it comes to Cherokee and McLain; first, I think Cherokee and McLain, both so close on North Peoria, are interwoven in their destinies reflecting our neighborhoods in the 74126 which are naturally multiethnic and don't rely on commuter students to make them so; secondly, because my wife and I met in kindergarden in Cherokee, and started dating in McLain...but it is not about the past.

2. We should take all this energy of the past year and month and be focusing our attention and energies on gathering people for rallies in OKC to demand that the state political leadership give our children the public education they and the state deserve instead of helping them in their efforts to gut public education or lower its standards for families who can't afford private school. Let's seriously try that first; people are awake now.

3. Much to applaud in the SchoolHouse Plan. Much. And much for the northern part of Tulsa is good. But instead of rushing it we need to make sure that we aren't leaving gaps like Cherokee tht will have unintended consequences

4. Mainly, we need to know and be able to discuss Why Cherokee has been recommended for closure. Based on the measurement criteria as we go over them, particularly compared with our neighboring schools, We Just Don't Get It. You know there has been a rush because no one has come to talk with Cherokee staff or parents or community leaders about the reasons, or to go over the proposed alternatives. This far into the process and why has there been no sit down even with the staff to explain, to review, to look at the alternatives as we see them, alternatives backed by three state legislators representing our area. Without that transparency, authenticity, no effort will be rewarded in creating community anywhere.

5. So, why not, instead of reopening Monroe which is right next to another elementary school , why not put that wonderful new program for it into a school already open like Cherokee, thus rewarding the turnaround success and the natural multi-ethnic diversity of the school? Cherokee is easy to get to from anywhere.

6. So, why have three schools serving children in grades six and under right next to each other within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati? Go ahead and keep Houston and Greeley nd bring the community school planned for Gilcrease down to Cherokee which is already in the pipeline working on becoming an official community school?

7. Finally, in the long run, bonding Cherokee and its surrounding community better with McLain, where students go to 6th grade at Cherokee and then immediately to 7th in McLain, will build back that connection (which lost when the problems at Gilcrease as a middle school step to McLain caused many at Cherokee and elsewhere to leave) and that connection will keep aiding McLain in its amazing transformation success story as a shining example of a naturally integrated multi-ethnic school that reflects the face of the amazing zip code we are all here in.

All the Videos & News & Design Plans on our Park where the Orchard will go

Explore this post to see all the moving videos and the news clips and articles and design documents and more on our Welcome Table Community KitchenGardenPark in the North Tulsa and Turley area where our orchard will go if we win one in the national online competition. Vote for us at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index/. register once and vote easily every day and pass it on..................................................................................................................................................... Here is the Tulsa World article that helped put us over the top to be able to buy the beautiful acre overlooking downtown Tulsa that was full of abandoned houses and buildings and start putting in the park: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100827_11_A11_CUTLIN485332 ...................................................... ..................................................................................................................... The most recent news story from channel eight: the clip shows us clearing the kitchengardenpark not the school though we had been planting there the day before, and the park and the orchard will be in a place where children walk by to school and families without cars on their way to the grocery store. http://www.ktul.com/video?clipId=5741176&autostart=true.............................................................................................. The Channel Six news story is at http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12642450.................................................................................................................... For the OU social work students moving video about the place and the need for the project and for your donations, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w . .......................................................................................................................................... For the OU Design Studio on what it will look like go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html .................................................................................................................... For the background on why we are doing this community transformation project here go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-vision-miracle-among-ruins.html and to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/04/consider-thischange-this.html ......................................................................................................................................... For the bigger connect the dots link on how we have plans for all of our Four Directions area of Tulsa North and Turley go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-directions-initiative-tnt-vision.html

Help Us Win A Fruit Tree Orchard For Our Area in Need of Healthy Food Options

Our Turley and North Tulsa community is in the running for a forty tree fruit tree orchard as it has been selected to be in a national online voting competition by the National Fruit Tree Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars. Five orchards a month will be awarded to communities receiving the top votes in a contest that will begin April 15 and last through August at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index. Please bookmark this link and go to it every day for a quick click and vote. Representing the local community in the competition is the area non-profit A Third Place Community Foundation. Our volunteer group raised $15,000 last summer to purchase a city block on North Johnstown Ave. and N. 60th St. overlooking downtown Tulsa where it is building The Welcome Table Community KitchenGardenPark on the site where abandoned houses once stood. The project is called the "Miracle Among The Ruins." Purchasing the site was the first miracle, getting the rundown eyesore homes removed was the next, and the fruit tree orchard will be another miracle on this site. If we win an orchard, the planting will take place at the new park site and with its partners in the area, according to Ron Robinson, Executive Director. "We hope everyone will go to the website every day and quickly click on our community, and encourage all their friends and family around the world to vote for us, because so few of our local residents have computers and internet access," he said. Robinson said the orchard is vitally needed not only to beautify the area and help complete the park as an asset in an area with few public amenities, but to add to the healthy food needs of the residents in the 74126 zipcode. A recent nutritional survey conducted by the OU Graduate Social Work students and the A Third Place Community Foundation revealed the following statistics about health and nutrition in its service area: ...55 percent worry about the amount of food they have ...6 percent use spoiled food ...29 percent use a food pantry ...31 percent receive food from church ...35 percent borrow food from family ...25 percent borrow food from friends ...25 percent adults skip entire day from eating ...29 percent adults skip meals ...26 percent did not eat and are hungry at time of survey ...43 percent eat less than they should ...60 percent eat low cost foods ...52 percent cannot afford nutritious meals ...57 percent run out of food ...60 percent cannot afford healthy food The Food Environment: ...29 percent have no affordable source of food in community ...63 percent know about a food pantry ,..56 percent rate the food quality in Turley area as fair or poor ...59 percent indicate food in Turley area expensive or very expensive relative to budget Overall Health: ...56 percent not currently healthy ...41 percent health is fair or poor ...54 percent are overweight ...66 percent should weigh less ...47 percent smoke or use other tobacco A Third Place Community Foundation, a new 501c3 organization made up of volunteers with all funds going to mission, runs not only The Welcome Table park but also has recently purchased a large old historic abandoned church building at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and is reclaiming and reopening it as The Welcome Table Community Center with free internet and computer center, library, game and meeting and program space, food pantry, 12 step recovery group, clothing giveaway, prayer and meditation room, and classrooms for a health hub. Its former community center on North Peoria was in rented space. Robinson said the purchase of the building, aided in part by a grant from the Zarrow Foundation, has helped to take an abandoned and vandalized building and is transforming it back for community use. The center has now reopened on a part time basis in its first phase of remodelling. We also run the area free summer lunch meal program at Cherokee School for all under 18 year old, and do environmental reclaiming and promotion of native wildflower plants in this region at schools and public sites. A Third Place Community Foundation is also involved with the McLain High School Initiative, Cherokee School, OU Community Health Worker project, and other events and items as part of its mission of "renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy lives and neighborhoods" through small acts of justice done with great love. For more on the group and area and to donate go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com. Or call 9186913223.

Come To Turley Area Big Event of Service: Apr 8-10: For Cherokee, Community Center, Park & More

We need you to help this weekend. Everyone Welcome. Come For Our Big Weekend of Service, join with others from OU and elsewhere working with us in our Turley area. ... Plant Cherokee (come help in the outstanding gardens and outdoor classrooms and help us plant the school in the minds and hearts of the School Board and community; all skill levels welcome; no experience needed; bring families, groups, etc) ... Sat April 9 between 8a-12p and beyond at Cherokee School Breakfast, Lunch included ... Part of The Great American Clean-Up Day Serving Turley Area Big Event Weekend Apr 8-10 Fri Apr 8, 2-7 p: work on the new community center, 5920 N. Owasso behind tag agency, and clean up Turley streets, free supper ...... Sat Apr 9, 8a-noon and later: Garden at Cherokee, 6001 N. Peoria, and/or at our emerging Park site, 6005 N. Johnstown Sun. Apr 10, 12-4 plant at Turley Welcome Sign and 66th and N. Lewis site and school, streets, park ..... Rainy weather meet in community center .... The Welcome Table Community Center, a project of A Third Place Foundation, local nonprofit 9186913223 and http://www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com/ .... Renewing Community, Empowering Residents, Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods