A $1.2 million signing bonus program drew 61 teachers to schools in rural Oklahoma, the state Department of Education reported Tuesday.
The state agency offered signing bonuses of up to $25,000 to teachers certified in secondary math and science who agreed to teach in a rural school for the 2024-25 academic year. Eligible teachers could not have worked in any Oklahoma public school the previous school year.
The program followed a similar round of signing bonuses paid last year that attracted more than 500 certified teachers to Oklahoma districts, which have long suffered from an educator shortage. Last year’s bonuses also resulted in a lawsuit when the state Education Department demanded certain teachers repay the money they received.
In this round of bonuses, the agency checked applicants’ eligibility through the Oklahoma Educator Credentialing System and through their local superintendents, spokesperson Dan Isett said. The Education Department did not spend any funds until after the verification process, he said.
Of the 61 recipients, 20 came from out of state, Isett said. Out-of-state candidates qualified for a $25,000 signing bonus while in-state teachers were eligible for $15,000. A total of $85,000 in agency funds went to federal taxes on the bonuses.
Fifty-five rural districts had a recipient teacher. The average teacher pay in Oklahoma is $60,656, according to the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced the program in June with the objective of attracting qualified teachers to critical shortage areas.
His agency said it would select candidates in August on a first-come, first-served basis and award bonuses in September.
Walters called his first signing bonus program the “most successful teacher recruitment effort in state history,” though it made headlines for some erroneous payments.
After distributing over 500 bonuses last year, the agency discovered it had paid four teachers who should have been ineligible, and it underpaid others, Walters said in a January news conference. He said his administration would pursue a “path forward that does not require a payback from those teachers.”
Two teachers, Kristina Stadelman and Kharis “Kay” Bojorquez, sued the agency in January for breach of contract and defamation after the state demanded they pay back their $50,000 bonuses.
Stadelman, of Oklahoma County, and Bojorquez, of Osage County, said the agency informed them after they had spent all of the money that they never actually qualified for the program in the first place. Their lawsuit states it would be “financially impossible” for them to repay their bonuses, particularly the $20,000 that went to federal taxes.
Walters said some teachers had been paid in error because they included “misinformation” in their applications. Stadelman and Bojorquez both deny the accusation.
The lawsuit is still pending in Oklahoma County District Court after settlement negotiations with the Education Department fell apart, said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mark Hammons.
He said the agency wanted an agreement that stated Stadelman and Bojorquez didn’t provide any “knowingly” false information, but the plaintiffs reject any suggestion that they were untruthful, even unintentionally. The agency’s mistakes created a situation that was “virtually impossible to correct,” Hammons said.
Isett declined to comment on the case.
The plaintiffs have asked that a judge order Walters to pay them each at least $75,000 in damages and absolve them of liability for repaying their $50,000 bonuses.
Hammons said he intends to request a deposition of Walters before asking a judge to enter a final ruling. In the meantime, both plaintiffs are still teaching in Oklahoma public schools and have not been forced to repay any funds, he said.
“It’s important for my clients, who have been put through the ringer in public, for it to be clear that they didn’t lie to anybody,” Hammons said.
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