Governor appoints new members to public school oversight board | News

OKLAHOMA CITY — In a shakeup of the state’s public school oversight board, Gov. Kevin Stitt introduced he’s changing 4 of the six members.

While some stated such an overhaul isn’t uncommon following an administration change, the shakeup sparked considerations that the new Stitt-appointed board members will use their new posts to deal with advancing controversial schooling priorities touted by the Republican governor and his ally, Ryan Walters. Earlier this week, Stitt started his second time period as governor, and Walters started his first as superintendent of public instruction.

“It’s a new day in the Stitt administration,” Kate Vesper, a Stitt spokeswoman, stated Wednesday in an e mail. “We are eager to have a board who shares the governor’s vision to put parents first, break out of our bottom ranking in education and give every student across the state — regardless of their economic status or zip code — the opportunity to attend a school that fits their unique needs.”

Tuesday night, Stitt introduced plans to appoint vitality business entrepreneur Donald Burdick, of Tulsa; homeschool educator Marla Hill, of Kingfisher; enterprise proprietor Kendra Wesson, of Norman; and Suzanne Reynolds, of Oklahoma City, who has “served in higher education at different universities.” Sarah Lepak and Trent Smith will proceed to serve on the board. All new appointees should be confirmed by the state Senate.

Vesper stated two of the new appointees stuffed present vacancies on the board. Jennifer Monies resigned her place Dec. 29, and Brian Bobeck resigned Dec. 17. Stitt additionally had appointed all 4 of the earlier board members.

Vesper stated she was not acquainted with the place many of the new appointee’s kids attended school or extra particularly if any had kids or grandchildren enrolled in public or constitution colleges. She did say Hill homeschools her 5 kids, and famous that Walters’ kids attend public school.

State Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, stated the State Board of Education membership needs to be numerous, and Stitt needs to be guaranteeing quite a lot of voices are represented. She stated the board ought to embrace a minimum of some people at the moment utilizing the public school system, people from the enterprise neighborhood, and he or she stated she’d even welcome a board member with homeschool or personal school background.

Boren stated she welcomes Stitt’s determination to add a homeschool perspective to the state board as a result of as a school counselor, she realized that some households homeschool earlier than transitioning right into a public school setting.

“I think for the public school system to understand what a healthy homeschool experience can be for a lot of families is really important,” Boren stated. “Otherwise you’d end up with a bias against all people that homeschool instead of being able to discern situations that are healthy and productive and those that are more concerning like just hiding kids from society.”

But she stated Stitt and Walters have used their “powers to eliminate resistance.” She views the new board composition as a “very narrow” one that’s going to validate the attitude of 1 particular person.

“I know it’s happening,” she stated. “It’s like watching a tornado come.”

State Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, stated lawmakers in 2018 expanded Stitt’s energy to appoint and boot board members at will.

He stated Stitt used that energy Tuesday by “sacking the entire board, which was already in his image, which is scary.”

“He’s able to basically take a board like the State Board of Education and make it in his image,” Rosecrants stated. “They’re going to push the ideas that Walters and them have been saying for a long, long time. And they’re going to make it look like this is actually happening in our schools. And they’re going to make it look like they’re fixing it by either pushing private school vouchers or shuttering schools or whatever else.”

Rosecrants stated he fears new board members are going to inflame an already false narrative about important race concept and liberal indoctrination occurring in colleges.

In a press release, Walters stated he’s trying ahead to serving with the new proposed state board.

“We have big items that we are going to tackle this year, and our top priority is ensuring that kids, teachers and parents are well served,” he stated.

Shawn Hime, government director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, stated it’s not unusual with administration adjustments to additionally see adjustments in board appointees.

He stated he’s excited to work with the new state board to proceed to enhance the best way that Oklahoma educates, and he believes dialogue improves as extra viewpoints are thought of.

Oklahoma Education Association, which represents educators, stated it had no touch upon the board adjustments.

State Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, a former trainer, stated she was “kind of shocked” when she heard how a lot change Stitt had applied to the board.

“I feel like this significant of a shift creates some chaos in a changing landscape,” she stated. “And so my biggest concerns and priority is to make sure that the Department of Education and our public schools have that stability that they need in order to effectively continue to educate our kids.”

Hicks stated lawmakers will find out about every particular person’s credentials and background by way of the Senate affirmation course of later this 12 months.

But, she stated it will be “pretty telling” if nearly all of the board’s members don’t have “a stake in the game as far as wanting our public schools to be successful because they’ve chosen alternative (education) methods for their family.”