Original Research by School Decision on Gypsy Public School
Gypsy Public School is a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade public school in the town of Depew, Oklahoma, in rural Creek County. It is one of the schools operated by the Gypsy district, which appears to serve a very small, sparsely populated area. The school’s enrollment is small, and it serves only elementary and middle grades; there is no high school on this campus, so there is no graduation rate to report.
State testing results for math, English language arts, and science are all suppressed across every tested grade from fourth through eighth. The number of students tested is recorded as zero for each of those grade-level assessments. This means that either no students in those grades took the state tests, or the counts were so low that the results could not be reported. A parent looking for academic achievement data will find none available from the state for this school. Because of the missing test data, the school cannot be compared academically to other districts in Creek County, and no proficiency index can be calculated.
The student body is small and diverse in racial and ethnic background, but the numbers are tiny, so any description of composition is necessarily broad. White students make up a little over half of enrollment. A substantial share of students identify as two or more races. American Indian or Alaska Native students and Hispanic students each account for a notable portion. A very small number of Asian students are also enrolled. Data on students with disabilities and English learners is not available. Information on free or reduced-price meal eligibility was also missing, so the share of students from low-income households is not reported.
The school is located in Depew, a very small rural town on Historic Route 66. The town has a long history as an agricultural and oil-boom settlement, but its population has been declining for decades. A majority of employed residents commute to jobs in nearby Bristow and Sapulpa, meaning there is very little local employment. Depew covers a small land area, and street life is minimal. The town’s civic infrastructure is limited: a post office, a school district, and its place on a historic highway are the main anchors. The civil rights history of Depew is notable; the NAACP once described it as a reactionary town, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. established freedom schools there to educate Black residents on voting rights.
Housing values in the area are above the statewide average in Oklahoma, though still well below national figures. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate and national unemployment rate data provided are macroeconomic context, not specific to Depew. The area’s sustained population decline over many decades suggests a contracting local economy with limited new development. No recent district changes such as bond elections, curriculum shifts, or consolidation were found in publicly available sources.
For a family considering this school, the clear takeaway is that the basic building blocks of academic performance are not available to evaluate. The school’s small size and rural setting mean that a child would be in a very small peer group. The lack of state test data could reflect the school’s unusually small enrollment and possibly alternative assessment arrangements. A parent would want to speak directly with the school or district to understand how academic progress is measured and what the curriculum looks like, since the public record provides no numbers. This school fits a family seeking a very small rural environment in a town with a deep but difficult history and a shrinking population, where the practical realities of commuting and limited local services are part of daily life.
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