A year after seven children were killed when a tornado hit Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, the Oklahoma Senate ended its session with a rejection of a proposal for school storm shelters.
The proposal, which was approved by the Oklahoma House last month, called for a statewide vote on allowing districts, with local voter approval, to increase their bonding authority once to build tornado shelters.
Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman said 97 percent of districts already have the ability within their existing bonding authority to seek such public-safety improvements. Among districts that could benefit from the plan, he said there wasn’t much interest in local school bond measures to fund tornado shelters.
Gov. Mary Fallin said there are 1,100 schools that need to build safe rooms.
