I am a high school senior at Broken Arrow Vanguard Academy writing on behalf of my school and student body.

Last Wednesday night, the entirety of our school (students and parents) received an email from Broken Arrow Public Schools Superintendent, Chuck Perry, outlining changes for Vanguard Academy. The email, claims to, “create greater flexibility and encourage more pathway-aligned coursework,” by implementing several changes to the curriculum. These changes, the district promises, will allow for more rigorous coursework and advanced classes, and will not negatively affect Vanguard in any way.

This was discovered to be incorrect only a few moments later, as the news spread.

The first stark change is that starting in the 2026/27 school year, Vanguard will only be serving students in grades 10-12. Previously, we served students from their freshman year and watched them grow into excellent community leaders by their senior year. By taking this option away from freshman, the district is effectively robbing students from fundamental skills they need to thrive on the Vanguard campus. Additionally, they are doing away with the application process, allowing Vanguard courses to be open to any interested 10-12 grade student. While from an outside perspective, this may seem like a good thing, it defeats the very purpose of Vanguard, and here’s why:

Vanguard is, first and foremost, an alternative method of learning. Within its two full-time programs (which would be collapsed with the implementation of this curriculum change), Broken Arrow Design Lab (BADLab) and XPO, students are introduced to two skillsets that will benefit them throughout their entire Vanguard education. In BADLab, students are taught the Human-Centered Design (HCD) Process, and as they progress in grade, they are given the opportunity to apply their skills to real-world problems within their community. Vanguard has formed many community partnerships with places like the Discovery Lab, the University of Tulsa, the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance, the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce, and even some government officials, through this process. In XPO, students are also taught the HCD process.

In addition, Vanguard Students are project-based in nature, evidenced by things like the staged drama they developed and performed that adapted Shakespeare’s The Tempest. However, the skills both programs teach are incredibly important, because in a student’s senior year, they have the opportunity to take the Capstone class.

Capstone serves as a chance for students to pursue an issue they are passionate about and create real change through a year-long project. This culminates in the second semester of their senior year, at an event called Capstone Conference. Here, students get to explain their chosen passion project in-depth, and talk about what they did and what difference it made. This is an incredible opportunity, because it teaches students what they are capable of. Our past two graduating classes have produced incredible work, and even in my class of seniors, I’m constantly being blown away by the quality of work being put out. Through Capstone, students have gotten in contact with leading industry professionals and professors all over the country, from New York to Texas.

However, Capstone only works if students are on-campus all four years. What the district is attempting to implement threatens to shatter that carefully cultivated foundation. The district’s proposal essentially suggests that Vanguard would become a glorified elective center; a place to put high schoolers because the main high school is just too full. This means that while my fellow seniors and I will have the chance to finish out our year at Vanguard like normal, all the underclassmen will not. All their work will have been for nothing, and they will be uprooted from the school they’ve poured so much time into. The district promises in one of their documents (attached below) that students will not miss a single Vanguard learning experience, but by changing the very essence of our school, they’ve already done so.

The students of Vanguard feel as though this is a deep injustice against us. What makes it worse is that the school board has not made an effort to publicize this announcement past the initial email. They are quiet on social media, and have not responded to any questions we – students and parents – have asked. It seems as though they are hoping for this to pass quietly. We will not allow this to happen.

There is a petition against these changes, which gathered 497 signatures in less than 24-hours. That’s more than the entire Vanguard student body. We are hoping to show the board how much the students care about Vanguard, and that we will not allow this to happen quietly.

Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/keep-broken-arrow-vanguard-academy-application-and-merit-based

As students, we have both the power and responsibility to do what we can for our school. We will not let Vanguard go.