By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Staff and board members of an Oklahoma City charter high school say they deserve an apology, not probation, from a state board they contend acted on “incorrect” information.
The governing board of Proud To Partner Leadership Academy didn’t consider any plans for improvement during its meeting Tuesday night, though the Statewide Charter School Board demanded such a plan by Nov. 26.
“There’s nothing to fix,” said Sharri Coleman, board chairperson for the academy.
The statewide board dropped the charter school to probation, one step away from closure, last week over concerns of weak finances, poor organization and low academic quality, all of which the school’s leaders dispute.
Chief among state officials’ concerns was a report that Proud To Partner Leadership Academy, known as PTPLA, had only one teacher on its payroll. The school now has more than 100 students enrolled after starting the school year with 56.
Statewide board staff said they observed a “profound lack of student instruction, supervision and engagement” during three school visits in recent weeks.
PTPLA Superintendent Dawn Bowles said she refused to allow a state official to make a fourth visit after the probation vote. She said she denied entry to the school because her students are “emotionally scarred” from the visits and from the recent media attention.
Bowles said the school laid off three teachers after low enrollment caused budget constraints. Those three teachers continued working full time without pay while another remained on payroll, she said in a 45-minute presentation refuting state officials’ allegations.
“When I spoke with each of them about the budget cuts that had to be made, they each said, ‘I’m not going anywhere, Ms. Bowles. It doesn’t matter if I’m getting paid or not. I’m here,’” she said of the teachers.
Bowles noted three other paid staff — the school counselor, a dean of leadership and herself — also hold teaching certifications.
PTPLA’s board voted Tuesday to rehire the three laid-off teachers on part-time status, though they’ll continue working full time. Bowles said she expects they will return to full pay when more state funding arrives in January.
The board also approved an adjusted budget for the 2025-26 school year without sharing any details.
Bowles acknowledged some of the state officials’ complaints were true. PTPLA missed two deadlines to file financial reports with the state this year and had to pay fines, she said.
The school also finished the 2025 fiscal year with a $274,222 deficit, which she said is “not supposed to happen.” A $400,000 grant from the Walton Personal Philanthropy Group later lifted PTPLA out of debt, Bowles said.
The statewide board’s director of school performance, Skyler Lusnia, gave a brief presentation of the deficiencies Tuesday night before receiving several pointed questions from PTPLA’s board.
“What our concern is, is the totality of it all,” Lusnia told the board. “There are multiple concerns, and if it was just one thing, we would have never gotten to this point.”
The board members dismissed Lusnia after their chairperson, Coleman, repeated their three requests: That the statewide board review information and documents from PTPLA, publicly apologize and immediately remove the school from probation.
Coleman said Lusnia had presented “incorrect” information that led to PTPLA’s demotion.
The fact that school leaders met Tuesday without establishing an improvement plan “does raise concerns,” said Brian Shellem, chairperson of the statewide board. He said the Nov. 26 deadline to produce a plan still stands.
“We’re going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they will provide us the plan,” Shellem said after observing the PTPLA board meeting. “If the corrective actions have already been made, even prior to our board meeting, great. Just show us what that is in writing. Provide us the documentation that all the kids were being taught. Wonderful. We’ll look forward to any and all evidence of what it is that’s being done.”
