By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — With state Superintendent Ryan Walters a no-show, the Oklahoma State Board of Education took the unusual step of carrying out its own meetingWednesday morning.
Officials and staff from six state agencies — but none from the Oklahoma State Department of Education — helped make the seven-minute meeting happen at the state Capitol. Typically the board meets at the Education Department with agency staff handling logistics.
A state Senate meeting room was teeming with spectators, reporters and lawmakers as four members of the seven-seat board waited to no avail for Walters, who typically chairs the board.
Once the clock struck 10 a.m., the four present members — Mike Tinney, Becky Carson, Chris Van Denhende and Ryan Deatherage — called the meeting to order and voted to hire Oklahoma City attorney Ryan Leonard as their next board counsel, replacing Chad Kutmas who stepped down last month. They also voted to start the process to hire their next board secretary by posting the open position.
Two absent board members, Sarah Lepak and Zachary Archer, had scheduling conflicts with the atypical meeting date and time, Tinney said.
Walters’ office did not explain why he was absent. Instead, his spokesperson, Madison Cercy, said Walters “is focused on tackling the big issues facing Oklahoma schools and is pleased to welcome Ryan Leonard to the team.”
However, a scathing statement from Attorney General Gentner Drummond puts the board’s action to hire Leonard in doubt. Drummond, who has the authority to approve or deny the board’s contract with an attorney, said Leonard is “woefully inadequate” for the position.
“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. (Kevin) Stitt first appointed Ryan Walters,” said Drummond, a Republican candidate to succeed Stitt as governor.
Walters served as Stitt’s education secretary before being elected as state superintendent in 2022. Leonard has acted as Stitt’s special counsel for Native American affairs and the governor’s lead negotiator with tribal nations.
Despite his comments, Drummond has not yet decided whether he will approve the board’s contract with Leonard, said Phil Bacharach, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office. Once the board submits its request to hire Leonard, the Attorney General’s Office will review it like any other, Bacharach said.
Leonard said he was “shocked and dismayed” at Drummond’s statement and disputed the claim that he isn’t qualified for the position. He said he and his law firm have represented several state agencies, and he is experienced in state government and administrative law.
“I was surprised by the attorney general’s comments because I’ve been in communication with his office, and my understanding was the attorney general wanted me to perform this role,” he said.
Tinney, also an attorney, said during the meeting he “tried to check out and find out a lot of things about Mr. Leonard, and everything shows me that he is very well qualified to do this job.”
Tinney later told news reporters that the board considered Leonard as a candidate because one of the board members knew him.
As the board members pushed to hire an attorney of their choosing and asked for input on their meeting agendas, their already rocky relationship with Walters devolved even further over the month of August.
Meanwhile, a law enforcement investigation has been pending into two board members’ reports of seeing nude women on a TV in Walters’ office during their July meeting.
Walters ultimately canceled the board’s pre-scheduled Aug. 28 meeting, citing transitioning staff and legal counsel.
The cancellation put on hold important work the board is meant to accomplish on a monthly basis, some members said.
For example, Carson said several Oklahoma educators are being paid like substitute teachers because the state board hasn’t yet approved their emergency certifications, which would grant them the higher wages of a certified teacher.
“That is concerning to me,” she told news reporters after the meeting. “Because we didn’t meet, we’ve affected their livelihood.”
Before canceling the August meeting, Walters voiced no specific concerns with the attorney the board members wished to hire, Van Denhende said after the board adjourned Wednesday. Rather, Van Denhende suggested “it has to do with control.”
Walters enjoyed no dissent from the board for his first two years in office. But as his relationship with the governor soured early this year, Stitt appointed four new members who have been willing to publicly disagree with Walters and call his policies into question.
Van Denhende said working with the state superintendent has been like “hand-to-hand combat.”
“I don’t know how much more difficult a man can make things,” Van Denhende said.
Carrying out the meeting Wednesday was a feat, the board members said, and they didn’t rule out having to schedule another.
The four present members leaned on a state law that allows a majority of the board to call a special meeting. They worked with local attorney Bob Burke to prompt the Education Department to post the meeting agenda, under threat of litigation.
The meeting itself required a patchwork of state agencies.
The Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability lent its board secretary and an employee to help facilitate the meeting. The deputy general counsel from the Office of Management and Enterprise Services was there in case the board needed legal advice. State Senate staff prepared and directed the facility.
Board members also credited the Attorney General’s Office for its help as they sought new legal counsel.
Education Secretary Nellie Tayloe Sanders, representing the Governor’s Office, posted the meeting agenda through the Secretary of State’s Office.
She said the meeting was “critical” for the board to hire necessary staff to help carry out its basic functions.
Hiring a new attorney who is aligned with the full board, not only with Walters, is an improvement, Van Denhende said, but “there’s no promise that anything’s going to change” without the state superintendent’s cooperation.
“We needed to have the August meeting, and we didn’t have it,” he said. “It was a struggle to have this meeting. So, who knows how we’re going to actually address the real business of the state schools.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Ryan Leonard.
