It's rare for the Board of Education to hold a meeting that the state superintendent didn't call — board member Mike Tinney said it may be the first time.
But member Chris VanDenhende said it also may not be the last.
"I don't know whether we will or not," he said. "But I think a lot of people understand there's a lot of work to be done, and we can't get that work done with no meetings and only addressing certain topics."
Tinney, who acted as chairperson for Wednesday's special meeting, said he felt the board's options were limited after Walters rejected attempts to discuss the board's legal representation at their regular meeting in July. Tinney said board members also requested the item be added to the agenda for their August meeting, but received no response.
"Then we found out, without any input from the board, that meeting was canceled," Tinney said. "So we felt like that left us no choice but to go ahead and call a special board meeting."
The logistics of a special meeting were new to the board members, and they faced opposition from the Walters administration, which declined to post the special meeting agenda on the Department of Education's website. Meeting agendas must be posted at least 24 hours ahead of a meeting, according to the Oklahoma Open Meetings Act.
An attorney sent Walters a letter on behalf of four members of the board last week, threatening to file a writ of mandamus with the Oklahoma Supreme Court if Walters did not post the agenda. Ultimately, no such writ was filed.
State Secretary of Education Nellie Tayloe Sanders posted the agenda on the Secretary of State's website, although she said she didn't help facilitate the special meeting beyond that.
"Truthfully, the only thing I did was post the agenda," she said after the special meeting. "It's what they needed. And so for that function, I was happy to be able to support them in that need."
Multiple board members expressed frustration about the recently cancelled meeting.
"Because we did not have the board meeting in August, we have a lot of school districts that are struggling with the need for emergency certified teachers that have not been certified," Tinney said.
Those emergency certifications weren't addressed during the special meeting, but the board hopes hiring new staff will bring stability.
What happened at the special meeting?
Wednesday's special board meeting only lasted 8 minutes — just long enough to discuss two hiring matters.
Four of the board's seven members were there. Walters was absent, as were Sarah Lepak and Zachary Archer. The members in attendance said Archer had let them know he wouldn't be able to make it for personal reasons. Lepak is a lecturer at the University of Oklahoma, where one of her classes conflicted with the meeting.
Tinney said Walters had indicated he would attend, but board member Becky Carson said she wasn't surprised at his absence.
"I would have hoped that he would show up to show that he's in it for the same reasons that we are — to benefit children and to increase our standing from 50th, you know," Carson said. "But it is what it is."
The board requires a four-member quorum to do business. Tinney, VanDenhende, Carson and Ryan Deatherage voted unanimously to approve Ryan Leonard as the board's new attorney.
The board's previous attorney was Chad Kutmas of Tulsa-based firm Norman Wolgemuth Attorneys at Law.
"Technically, we had an attorney at the July board meeting," VanDenhende said. "Norman Wohlgemuth [Attorneys at Law] resigned probably the second week in August. So it's been a couple weeks, maybe. But the board didn't have an attorney because nothing we asked him to do, did he do."
VanDenhende believes Kutmas behaved as if he were working only for Walters.
"That was not his role," VanDenhende said. "It was to represent the full board."
The board is also in the process of hiring a new secretary.
All four of the board members involved in calling the special meeting were appointed by the governor after the start of the year. Secretary of Education Sanders said hiring new staff is a big step for the relatively new board.
"Today I think they proved that they can do the work of the board," Sanders said. "They're going to be able to serve the students of Oklahoma, because they are going to be able to work as a board and have the proper staff to be able to do it."
VanDenhende is also hopeful the new attorney will help the board do its job.
"I think it will be helpful that we actually have an attorney that we are paying to do the work of the board," VanDenhende said. "So we can spend less of our time researching statutes and figuring all this stuff out on our own and just ask him to take care of it."
Attorney General Gentner Drummond, however, has reservations about the board's new attorney. He weighed in on Wednesday afternoon to criticize Leonard's qualifications, calling him "woefully inadequate to serve as general counsel to the State Board of Education."
"The board's decision to hire a politically connected attorney with little to no experience advising a state board is yet another example of the dysfunction that has plagued public education since Gov. Stitt first appointed Ryan Walters," Drummond said in a statement.
Drummond's office will ultimately have to approve the hiring.
Tensions with Walters continue
Despite Walters' absence at the special meeting, he issued a statement about Leonard's appointment.
"Superintendent Walters is focused on tackling the big issues facing Oklahoma schools and is pleased to welcome Ryan Leonard to the team," a spokesperson for Walters' office told Oklahoma Voice.
VanDenhende said he spoke with Walters about the Board's decision to hire a new lawyer, but he promised not to divulge the details of the conversation.
"But the general tone was: this had nothing to do with Ryan Leonard," VanDenhende said. "It has to do with control."
VanDenhende said the board could take further legal action if members feel Walters is impeding them from meeting statutory obligations.
"We sort of moved down that path a little bit by letting Superintendent Walters know that if we didn't have this meeting that we would file a writ of mandamus compelling him to follow state statute," Vandenhende said. "He was semi-cooperative, but clearly he didn't show up. So we always have that as an option, but that's not an option that adults should be using."
The relationship between Walters and his fellow board members has been strained for months, featuring spats about meeting agendas, a scandal involving nude women on his office television and more.
VanDenhende said he doesn't think it will be harder to work with Walters after the board went against his wishes on this hire.
"I don't know how much more difficult a man can make things," he said. "So will it be more difficult? No."
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
