About Union

Top 10 candidates for Mr. and Miss Union in 2025.

About the District

Union Public Schools, the eighth largest school district in Oklahoma, had a total enrollment of 14,950 students, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade during the 2024-2025 school year. The district’s 19 school sites – 13 elementary schools, five secondary and an early childhood center – are a showcase for academic excellence and innovation in public education, located in southeast Tulsa and northwest Broken Arrow. 

At Union, we believe that every student has the right to a high-quality public education, and we are committed to our mission of “100 Percent Graduation, College and Career-Ready.” Our collective vision is one of “REACHING — ENGAGING — and INSPIRING.” 

The district’s strengths in early childhood, community schools, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), and college and career readiness continue to power us forward into the future. We have made some minor adjustments to our district’s instructional philosophy, which we call the Core Four: hope, engagement, relevance, and critical thinking. 

Union continues to adapt to the changing needs of our community and students. The transformation of our 6th and 7th Grade Centers, the centerpiece of our most recent bond campaign, is well underway. We are deeply invested in student engagement and developing new programming – including the expansion of our construction academy, a new aerospace academy and the genesis of a medical academy – providing our students with even more pathways to success.

Union's Adult Education Learning Center serves northeastern Oklahoma, offering GED classes, English as a Second Language and more.

Parents choose the Union district for its all-around excellence.  They take great pride in its wide-ranging, dynamic academic programs; award-winning activities; caring, talented teachers; highly respected elected and administrative leaders; and remarkable facilities.  Union is one of the leading districts in Oklahoma in the number of teachers earning National Board Certification and in number of Presidential Math and Science Award recipients.

Union’s Community Schools — schools complete with health clinics and services from community agencies — serve as a model to other districts nationwide.  They increase academic success by forming community partnerships to provide extra supports such as early care, health and social services, out-of-school activities, family/community engagement, neighborhood development and lifelong learning.

In addition to challenging Pre-Advanced Placement (AP) classes, Union offers a variety of Advanced Placement classes which allow students to earn college credit while learning about a subject in depth.  In partnership with Tulsa Community College (TCC), Union was the first to pilot a unique concurrent enrollment program - EDGE - Earn a Degree, Graduate Early – on its High School campus, enabling qualifying students to earn both high school and college credits at the same time – virtually tuition free!  

Union’s Collegiate Academy at the High School provides students a challenging college-like experience with instructors from Tulsa Community College, tiered lecture halls, advanced science labs, student lounges, and specialty food shops, along with a safety net of high school staff members there to ensure their success.  Counselors in the College and Career Center help students and their parents complete college entrance, financial aid, and scholarship applications or bank college credit through Tulsa Technology Center.  

The Union community provides whatever it takes to ensure all students graduate college/career ready. Successful bond issues have funded state-of-the-art tools to enhance reading, language, math, science, and writing skills at every grade level. Art, music, and physical education enrich the traditional curriculum. Professionals in remedial reading, speech therapy, and special education are assigned to the schools along with library media specialists, nurses, and counselors. Courses for gifted students are offered at all levels, as are programs for English Language Learners.

Statistics

In 2024-25, Union’s enrollment decreased by 29 students (0.2%) over the previous year. In total, Union served 14,950 students – 6,916 at the elementary level and 8,034 in grades 6-12.

District-wide, 7,432 students (49.7%) were female and 7,521 (50.3%) male.

In terms of racial origin, 3.5% were American Indian/Alaska Native, 15.1% African American, 9.8% multi-racial, 0.3% Pacific Islander/Hawaiian, 7.2% Asian, 21.3% Caucasian and 42.8% of Hispanic ethnicity.

There were 3,114 identified gifted students in grades Pre-K-12, served by a variety of courses, programs and enrichment services.

Union students take four standardized tests related to college preparation and admission. 

The participation numbers and results:

• 1,170 students took the PreAct with a composite score of 15.85
• 1,254 students took the ACT with a composite score of 17.0
• 181 students took the PSAT with an average score of 1099
• 55 students took the SAT with an average score of 1,242

There were 2,164 students enrolled in special education. 

English Learners

English Learner (EL) services were provided to 2,807 elementary and 1,899 secondary students; of these students, 182 became English-proficient and exited the program. Our diverse population spoke more than 60 different languages. Approximately 29 perent of Union students were English Learners.

Adult Education

For more than 30 years, Union Public Schools has served the community with an adult basic education program to assist adults through GED/HiSET Preparation classes and/or English language learning for non-native English speakers. During the 2024-25 school year, Union’s Adult Basic Education program enrolled approximately 1,500 students in these classes.  

Through partnerships with local community agencies, the Union Adult Learning Center embraces the opportunity to serve students not only in Tulsa, but also in the neighboring communities of Claremore, Muskogee and Pryor. Partnerships include, but are not limited to, Community Action Project of Tulsa (CAP), Tulsa Technology Center, Rogers State University, Northeast Technology Center - Pryor and Tulsa Community College. 

The Pearson Vue Testing Center housed at the Union Adult Learning Center provided certification testing for individuals in a variety of areas, including Teacher Certification testing and high school equivalency (HSE) testing. Nearly 2,500 HiSet, GED and/or Pearson tests were given during the school year, with approximately 200 individuals earning High School Equivalency diplomas. 

Extended Day Program

Union’s Extended Day Program (EDP) served 657 students at 15 sites. 

Among the children’s favorite activities in EDP were outdoor play, center activities and gym games. STEM and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) activities including arts and craft shows, making snow globes and silhouettes, door decorating, crochet, flying kites, daily weather forecasting, paper mâché masks, creating Dino habitats and a “robotic” arm, raising butterflies and ladybugs, making cards for veterans, a visit from the fire department and making grilled cheese sandwiches. An array of parties included “car wash” foam, bubbles, glow and splash parties and January birthdays for all students. They stayed busy, challenged and happy! 

Our EDP Resource Room provided supplies to make all these activities happen.

Fall and Spring Break camps were a success this year, serving 198 students. We visited Livesay Orchard, the Will Rogers Museum, Philbrook Museum, Incredible Pizza and the Tulsa Zoo.
Summer camp was full all summer with a waiting list. We served 221 students and stayed busy with STEAM projects daily, as well as swimming, field trips and special visitors. 

Native American Programs

Students receiving tribal assistance continued to grow. Duiring this 2024-25 school year, we had the opportunity to offer all 15 sites Cherokee Nation childcare assistance. Eleven sites received Muscogee (Creek) assistance. The tribes require that parents first request childcare assistance through their agency an agreement is extended. We also accept DHS childcare assistance at all sites for those families who qualify.