From left, Oklahoma State Board of Education members Becky Carson, Mike Tinney, Chris Van Denhende and Ryan Deatherage conduct a special meeting Wednesday at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — With state Superintendent Ryan Walters a no-show, the Oklahoma State Board of Education took the unusual step of carrying out its own meeting Wednesday morning.
Officials and staff from six state agencies — but none from the Oklahoma State Department of Education — helped make the seven-minute meeting happen at the state Capitol. Typically the board meets at the Education Department with agency staff handling logistics.
A state Senate meeting room was teeming with spectators, reporters and lawmakers as four members of the seven-seat board waited to no avail for Walters, who typically chairs the board.
Once the clock struck 10 a.m., the four present members — Mike Tinney, Becky Carson, Chris Van Denhende and Ryan Deatherage — called the meeting to order and voted to hire Oklahoma City attorney Ryan Leonard as their next board counsel, replacing Chad Kutmas who stepped down last month. They also voted to start the process to hire their next board secretary by posting the open position.
Two absent board members, Sarah Lepak and Zachary Archer, had scheduling conflicts with the atypical meeting date and time, Tinney said.
Walters’ office did not explain why he was absent. Instead, his spokesperson, Madison Cercy, said Walters “is focused on tackling the big issues facing Oklahoma schools and is pleased to welcome Ryan Leonard to the team.”
State Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks with news reporters after an Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting on July 24. He didn’t attend the board’s latest meeting Wednesday. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)
An already rocky relationship with the board further devolved over the month of August as board members pushed to hire an attorney of their choosing and asked for input on their meeting agendas. Meanwhile, a law enforcement investigation has been pending into two board members’ reports of seeing nude women on a TV in Walters’ office during their July meeting.
Walters ultimately canceled the board’s pre-scheduled Aug. 28 meeting, citing transitioning staff and legal counsel.
The cancellation put on hold important work the board is meant to accomplish on a monthly basis, some members said.
For example, Carson said several Oklahoma educators are being paid like substitute teachers because the state board hasn’t yet approved their emergency certifications, which would grant them the higher wages of a certified teacher.
“That is concerning to me,” she told news reporters after the meeting. “Because we didn’t meet, we’ve affected their livelihood.”
Before canceling the August meeting, Walters voiced no specific concerns with the attorney the board members wished to hire, Van Denhende said after the board adjourned Wednesday. Rather, Van Denhende suggested “it has to do with control.”
Walters enjoyed no dissent from the board for his first two years in office. But as his relationship with Gov. Kevin Stitt soured early this year, the governor appointed four new members who have been willing to publicly disagree with Walters and call his policies into question.
Van Denhende said working with the state superintendent has been like “hand-to-hand combat.”
“I don’t know how much more difficult a man can make things,” Van Denhende said.
Oklahoma State Board of Education members, from left, Becky Carson, Chris Van Denhende and Ryan Deatherage visit before a special meeting Wednesday at the state Capitol. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
Carrying out the meeting Wednesday was a feat, the board members said, and they didn’t rule out having to schedule another.
The four present members leaned on a state law that allows a majority of the board to call a special meeting. They worked with local attorney Bob Burke to prompt the Education Department to post the meeting agenda, under threat of litigation.
The meeting itself required a patchwork of state agencies.
The Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability lent its board secretary and an employee to help facilitate the meeting. The deputy general counsel from the Office of Management and Enterprise Services was there in case the board needed legal advice. State Senate staff prepared and directed the facility.
Education Secretary Nellie Tayloe Sanders, representing the Governor’s Office, posted the meeting agenda through the Secretary of State’s Office.
She said the meeting was “critical” for the board to hire necessary employees to help carry out its basic functions.
Board members also credited the Attorney General’s Office for its help as they sought new legal counsel.
Hiring a new attorney who is aligned with the full board, not only with Walters, is an improvement, Van Denhende said, but “there’s no promise that anything’s going to change” without the state superintendent’s cooperation.
“We needed to have the August meeting, and we didn’t have it,” he said. “It was a struggle to have this meeting. So, who knows how we’re going to actually address the real business of the state schools.”
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