Beth Wallis
Reporter for StateImpact OklahomaBeth Wallis holds a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. Originally from Tulsa, she also graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in conducting performance. She was a band director at a public school for five years.
Beth is an alumnus of the Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellowship and NPR Next Generation Radio. She's been recognized for her work by the Hearst Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Collegiate Press and the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association. She was awarded Best Podcast from the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists for her series "At the Seams," which explores Norman's relationships with political division, police funding and its own racial history.
Beth enjoys hiking, playing with her four dogs and discovering new favorite musical artists.
-
A bill that would prohibit schools from using corporal punishment on children with certain disabilities passed the Oklahoma Senate Tuesday.
-
In Tulsa, there are about 450 after-school programs at risk of shrinking to just 75 once ESSER funds are gone.
-
Oklahoma Republican lawmakers “shucked” a bill about law enforcement recording access and replaced it with new language to allow public schools to employ religious chaplains or accept voluntary chaplains to “provide support, services and programs for students.”
-
They may not have been quite in the path of totality, but pre-kindergarteners through fifth graders at Putnam City’s Tulakes Elementary School were still on pins and needles Monday, waiting to experience 94% totality at the solar eclipse.
-
After five grueling days of preliminary hearing testimony, a decision on whether a case against Epic Charter Schools co-founders David Chaney and Ben Harris will go to trial is still over a month away.
-
Lawmakers are at the halfway point in this year’s legislative session, and just a fraction of the education bills filed at the top of the session have survived big legislative deadlines.
-
Every year, the organization Freedom of Information Oklahoma awards those who promote access and awareness of open records and open government, but it also saves one award recognizing a lack of transparency — the Black Hole Award. This year’s Black Hole Award recipient is State Superintendent Ryan Walters.
-
In a special education classroom at Tulsa Public Schools’ Skelly Elementary, Kathleen Bitson presses colored blocks into a student’s hand, counting aloud as she picks up each one.
-
Sarah Lucas, secretary of the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition, set out plates of apple pie slices on a red, white and blue table while public school supporters filed into a room at the Oklahoma Capitol building Wednesday.
-
The Oklahoma Senate Education Committee was scheduled to hear a bill that would have removed authority over school district accreditation decisions from the State Board of Education. But at the end of the committee meeting Tuesday, the bill’s author and chair of the committee sidelined it.