JENKS, Okla. — Jenks Public Schools announced its planetarium is closing after 15 years, and the district already has plans in motion for the space.
The district's e-sports team is moving into the building.
2 News Oklahoma spoke with Jenks Public Schools to clear up details about this project and highlight its new potential.
"I think what’s really important for everybody to know and understand is that the planetarium is not closing because of e-sports," Rob Loeber said. "The decision was not made to prioritize e-sports over the planetarium or over any kind of science education because it’s cost-prohibitive at this point to keep it open."
Jenks Public Schools understands the disappointment of students and parents regarding the announcement of the closure. However, this decision was not made overnight, and district leaders discussed it for years.
The planetarium costs hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to maintain, and that cost grows as technology improves.
"The technology that existed 15 years ago is obviously not the same as it is now and has a shorter lifespan now that it did back then," Loeber said. "So it’s not just a one-time cost."
Instead of putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into just the planetarium, the district plans on spreading that money across the district in several ways.
One of those includes moving the district's fairly new e-sports team, which previously worked in classrooms, into the building.
2 News Oklahoma reached out to the Rogers State University e-sports head coach, who thinks schools in Green Country, like Jenks, Bixby, Tulsa Public Schools, Union, and several others, are moving in the right direction.
RSU started its e-sports program in 2018 and won a championship last year. One of the program's goals is to recruit new participants locally.
"It’s huge. Especially because most schools want to recruit in state if possible," Holden Craig said. "Especially schools who maybe are not top 10 national teams want recruiting players from all over the world. It’s huge just to have that pipeline from high school to college. It’s been huge for us for sure."
RSU's program marked the first e-sports program at an Oklahoma state college, starting a decade ago. Now, that ripple effect is spreading to high schools across America.
According to Jenks Public Schools, its team is currently ranked 13th in the nation.
The Jenks Planetarium still has several shows listed running through May 5, 2026. Ticket prices are $7.
Here’s a link for more information on that: https://jenksps.ce.eleyo.com/Planetarium
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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