Words from the Director State Board of Education Actions and November Elections

Dr. Pam Deering, CCOSA/OASA Executive Director deering@ccosa.org

Dear CCOSA Members,

Welcome back to the 2022-23 school year! With this issue, we hope that our information will help you improve your school finances with an improved process for counting students for first quarter reporting. In addition, it is our goal to keep you informed of the issues we see that impact your district and public education as a whole.

As a professional organization of Oklahoma education leaders, CCOSA provides leadership as is reflected in our mission to serve, promote and enhance the opportunities for public school students and schools across the state. Our organization and members believe that children should come first in all decisions by our appointed and elected leaders at both the local and state levels. We must be vigilant regarding all things for our public schools in this era of attacks on public education.

The recent actions of the majority of the appointed members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education have created concerns because of how they are treating our local Oklahoma schools, instead of working with our schools to produce better opportunities and results for all children. Our schools have locally-elected boards whose members reflect the values of our communities as is demonstrated by the vast majority of families engaged in their local public schools and their consistent support of our schools’ efforts through the passage of bond issues.

CCOSA is increasingly concerned with the pattern of this Board being consistently punitive to traditional public schools for infractions while simultaneously, for years, ignoring or defending significant financial and governance infractions by private and charter schools, most notably Epic Charter Schools.

The actions at the July 28, 2022 board meeting set several very concerning precedents. First, one district’s accreditation status was singled out for a stronger penalty than the State Department of Education recommendation, for words used by a vendor professional development trainer at an event in August, 2021. HB 1775 (2021) prohibits explicit course content for students. It was not until the September 10, 2021 board meeting that emergency administrative rules, which added professional development to the HB 1775 language, were approved. The emergency rules added substantially new meaning to the original legislation. Thus, a district’s accreditation status was downgraded to Accredited With Warning based on a retroactive application of an emergency administrative rule with greatly expanded meaning. The OSDE had recommended Accreditation With Deficiencies, in alignment with the Board-approved Rules for HB 1775.

Then, once board members were apprised that a second public school district had been recommended for the designation of Accreditation With Deficiencies, after self-reporting a single classroom incident related to course content, the board also separated that district out to downgrade their status to Accredited With Warning. These actions to reject the OSDE recommendations for Accreditation With Deficiencies for two public school districts and downgrade their accreditation status clearly demonstrate that the board chose to ignore the language, written and approved by this same board, and approved by the legislature [OAC 210:10-1-23].

Second, this Board set another concerning precedent, that a violation of HB 1775, which is vague and subject to personal interpretation, no matter how minor or that occurred without the district’s knowledge, rises above egregious governance or financial violations, including fraud and misappropriated funds, by a public or privately-run school.

Third, this Board did not follow the process outlined in Oklahoma Administrative Code (210: 35-3-201):

If a school site is placed on warning or probation, the school board and administration will meet with one or more representatives from the Accreditation Section to review their accreditation status. After the review from the representative(s), a determination will be made concerning warning, probation or nonaccredited status. The Accreditation Section will then present a recommendation to the State Board of Education.

Since this Board downgraded the accreditation status of the two districts from the recommendation by the Accreditation Section of the Oklahoma State Department of Education to warning, the public schools should have been given prior notice with a meeting between the school board and administration of the local schools and the Accreditation Section to review their accreditation status. By receiving prior notification, school representatives could have been present to provide any response to being Accredited With Warning. The private school, on the other hand, whose status was upgraded by the State Board of Education at this same meeting, was given ample time in the meeting to make their case for an upgrade in accreditation status.

On August 25, 2022, the State Board of Education met on this same issue with a motion before them to reconsider the decision from the July State Board meeting. Representatives from both districts were given the opportunity to speak before the Board regarding the accreditation status and the impact on their students, staff and communities. Their comments were thoughtful, respectful and convincing. However, the majority of the State Board of Education voted against the motion to reconsider the accreditation status for these two districts.

The State Board of Education is the governing board of the public school system of the state of Oklahoma with members appointed solely by the Governor. From the State Department of Education website, the State Board of Education members are charged with pursuing and implementing reforms that will boost student performance and ultimately help to create the kind of educated, highly skilled workforce that will bring more and better jobs to the state. This State Board of Education continues to send a message that they are more interested in working against traditional public schools and teachers than they are in collaborating and supporting them to ensure a quality education for all public school students in the state.

The recent Legislative Office of Fitscal Transparency Oversight (LOFT) Committee report included a policy recommendation to “amend the composition and appointment process for the State Board of Education members to allow the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate to appoint members.” With this policy change, there is an opportunity for public education to be governed by a State Board of Education that truly seeks fairness and all things in the best interest of public education students. We hope that Legislators, in the upcoming session, will pursue this change to the State Board of Education.

As we approach the November 8 General Election, governance is a HUGE issue in the race for the State Superintendent of Public Education. We must have a public education leader who knows public education and how schools work. From 2011-2014, a foe of public education held that office. For four years, schools experienced chaos, school leaders were disrespected and dismissed, more administrative regulations were imposed and laws were supported by the person in that office to restrict traditional schools, but expand virtual and charter schools with limited oversight. We see how well that worked, didn’t we?!

Let’s get out the vote FOR public education candidates on November 8. School leaders, we must UNITE behind pro-public education candidates! We face the loss of funding and the possibility of vouchers, or similar programs this next session, that will harm public education.

We need all of us working together to be at the polls to elect leaders who know the value of public education, understand school governance and proper oversight of taxpayer dollars, and reflect it in their actions. Please spread the word to those in your schools and communities to vote as if their local community school and all of public education in Oklahoma depends on it; because this year it really does!

Respectfully,

Pam Deering, Ph.D. CCOSA Executive Director

This article is updated for the most recent actions regarding the Accreditation Status for two districts at the August 25, 2022 State Board of Education Meeting. Originally, it was sent on August 17 as a message to CCOSA members.