The somewhat successful school bond

By Caleb Parker

Screenshot of bond logo from owassops.org

During this past month of February, much of the Owasso community was on the edge of their seats, awaiting an ambitious bond that would provide upgrades, additional services and new buildings to the entire school district. Updates such as a new fifth grade center, all day Pre-K and extensions of existing schools  were included in the bond. Unfortunately, this was one of the first school bonds in recent years that failed to pass fully, despite its larger-than-usual voter turnout—and hence provided a dispiriting end to a potentially beautiful and new beginning.

Picture of wintry sunset in Owasso taken by Caleb Parker

According to PIMCO, a global financial organization that deals largely with individual and group investments, a bond is “a loan that the bond purchaser, or bondholder, makes to the bond issuer.” And that’s exactly what this large school bond was: a chance for Owasso to borrow money in order to finance much needed upgrades now, and then to pay it off later when the city had raised enough money through taxes and other methods.

Owasso’s 2025 school bond was split into two propositions—Proposition One, which included the largest chunk of school-wide upgrades, and Proposition Two, which only included new cycles of transportation improvements for the district. The bond needed approval by the Owasso community with a mandatory 60% majority vote required from the county to begin progress. However, it barely fell short of this margin, with a slim number of 59 votes advocating against Proposition One. The final percentage for this first half of the bond came out to 58.49%, hindering its passage while Proposition Two continued onward by another slim margin of 61.63%.

Questions arose about the unsuccessful bond: Why didn’t it pass? What could’ve caused a large margin to vote against both bonds? What could be done better next time?

I sat down with OHS Principal Tiffani Cooper to discuss both mine and the community’s personal inquiries to this surprising phenomenon.

When asked about the significance this bond had on the community, Cooper states “This is the biggest bond that Owasso Public Schools has ever gone out for, so … [it was] a big, aggressive bond—which was great—but disappointing that it didn’t fully pass.”

The sheer size and cost of this bond was enormous—194 million dollars was the total cost, to be exact. Cooper suggests that this, alongside the low voter turnout associated with school bonds, could’ve been a large reason for the biggest section of the bond failing for implementation.

Despite the voter turnout, the amount of people who voted for this bond was actually higher than the last one, which Cooper finds extremely baffling.

“It actually [had] a higher voter turnout than the last bond issue, which is shocking,” exclaims Cooper, eyes wide in disbelief. “[It] was still very low compared to our base [number of citizens] … but [the higher turnout] could be just because there [were] more people who felt passionately on either side.”

Though there was an increased number of people voting due to the City Council’s election day, the lack of voters still contributed to the percentages underperforming. Many of the upgrades for the school district will not come to fruition through this bond. 

Yet, the improved transportation in Proposition Two will still give a “refreshing cycle of our buses and transportation vehicles,” according to Cooper.

As saddening as the bond results were, OPS was incredibly open and honest in reaching out to the community over the news. Superintendent Margaret Coates sent an email to the parents and guardians of Owasso students, notifying them that the bond failed to meet its criteria to pass. 

Coates informed the community that it was still in the city leaders’ desire to “work diligently to put together a new proposal for the community to consider in order to meet [these] important [demands].”

These new demands are incredibly desired by many in the community, including Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition (PLAC) member and parent Melissa Welborn. 

“I was very disappointed that it didn’t pass, especially by such a slim margin,” Welborn replied. When asked about the school’s efforts in encouraging students and families to vote, Welborn shared her own opinion, saying, “I think the school did a great job getting the word out … obviously the school is here for our students. [But] something needs to be said about how if you are a part of the community, you’re going to have to be expected to, you know, pitch in. Unfortunately, taxes are probably part of that … I wish it wasn’t that way, but yeah.”

Welborn continued, denoting her disappointment with a sad frustration in her voice as she relayed her concern about Owasso families: “[There’s] a cost benefit, right, [where] everybody weighs what’s important to them---but I find it hard to believe that most people … wouldn’t give up [some money] over the course of an entire year to get these things for their community, for their school [and] for their students.”

Although the community won’t be expecting any drastic changes to the city-wide school system, Owasso is still determined to hold its head high with the progress the city has already made, including what makes the town so great: a growing boomburb with beautiful people that are working together to foster a better future for their families.

Picture of OHS main foyer and ram taken by Caleb Parker