Concerns of breaking state law prompt state Board of Education to cancel meeting
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, center, speaks at the head of the table where the Oklahoma State Board of Education meets on Feb. 27 in Oklahoma City. The board abruptly canceled its March meeting Thursday. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma's top school board abruptly canceled its monthly meeting Thursday over concerns of a violation of the state's public meeting law.
An agenda for the meeting was posted online 19 minutes late Wednesday, though it was physically posted on time at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, where the meeting would have taken place at 1 p.m. Thursday, state Superintendent Ryan Walters confirmed.
The Oklahoma Open Meeting Act requires public meeting agendas to be posted online and at the meeting location at least 24 hours in advance.
Some members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education 'expressed reservation due to a potential Open Meetings Act violation,' though their attorney advised the meeting could continue, Walters said in a statement through a spokesperson.
'Out of an abundance of caution the board meeting for March will be scheduled for April 24th, 2025, which is the next scheduled board meeting date,' Walters said.
Walters' statement appears to point blame at another state agency. He said the agenda was sent to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services for posting ahead of the deadline.
It is 'dishonest and misleading' to characterize this as an OMES error, agency spokesperson Christa Helfrey said.
The OMES employee responsible for posting agendas for the state Board of Education is embedded within the state Department of Education and 'is managed by OSDE daily,' Helfrey said.
Education Department staff emailed this employee only six minutes before the final deadline for the agenda to be posted, Helfrey said. The employee posted the agenda 20 minutes later.
'It's important to note, OSDE is responsible for the development of its meetings and agendas and allowing enough reasonable time to post those agendas so that the public may receive notice and attend the open meeting,' Helfrey said.
Canceling a public meeting over concerns of an untimely posted agenda is in compliance with state law, the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office said through its spokesperson, Phil Bacharach.
The state superintendent serves as chairperson of the state Board of Education and decides which matters the board will discuss during meetings. His control of meeting agendas caused friction with recent appointees to the board and prompted legislation that could affect all school boards in Oklahoma.
The state House passed a bill on Wednesday allowing two members of the state board, and on any district school board with five or more members, to place an item on a meeting agenda by submitting a written request.
The state board's March meeting agenda included potential votes on waiving regulations to allow six districts to have under the minimum number of 165 school days next school year. Another two districts requested permission to employ substitute teachers for an extra number of school days.
Among other administrative matters, the board would have considered whether to suspend multiple teacher certifications, the agenda shows.
But, the agenda doesn't include any items new board members requested. Chris Vandenhende, who took office in February, said at the board's Feb. 27 meeting he wanted to schedule a vote to 'suspend all activity related to immigration.'
Vandenhende made the request in response to Walters' and the board's proposal of a rule that would require schools to report students' immigration status. Gov. Kevin Stitt vocally opposed the suggested rule, calling for Walters to be held accountable, and replaced three board members with Vandenhende, Ryan Deatherage and Mike Tinney.
The Oklahoman reported Vandenhende, Deatherage and Tinney had requested numerous other items for the board to discuss on Thursday, which Walters didn't include in the meeting agenda. Deatherage didn't immediately return a request for comment from Oklahoma Voice, and attempts to reach Vandenhende and Tinney were unsuccessful.
The newspaper reported board members emailed Walters to ask for another review of the academic standards for social studies that they approved on Feb. 27.
Without publicly posting or acknowledging any changes, Walters' administration added language to the new social studies standards that suggest there were 'discrepancies' in the 2020 presidential election. The new standards are now in the hands of the state Legislature for review.
So far, the three new board members have shown a willingness to question and contend with the state superintendent that no other members have displayed in public since Walters took office in January 2023.
Deatherage cast the board's first 'no' vote in over two years against an item Walters proposed. He did so when voting against the social studies standards, saying he hadn't had enough time to review them fully.
The governor said he didn't give the new appointees specific marching orders as they joined the board, which he shook up over complaints of poor academic results and too much 'political drama.'
'There's no instructions on what we're going to do,' Stitt said during a media briefing Wednesday. 'But it's like, hey, let Washington, D.C., play politics. Let's just focus on making Oklahoma the best state for education. So that's really my only direction to these folks.'
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