In elections for three Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education seats, voters reelected incumbent John Croisant to District 5, selected Sarah Smith to fill a vacant District 6 post and chose Calvin Moniz for District 2, according to unofficial election results.
Croisant received 3,360 votes (77.7 percent), topping challenger Teresa Peña’s 964 votes. Smith garnered 1,375 votes (72.6 percent), beating opponent Maria Seidler’s 519 votes. In District 2, which saw the lowest turnout, Moniz earned 425 votes (65.5 percent), while opponent KanDee Washington saw 224 votes cast in her name.
Election results are unofficial until they are certified by the Oklahoma State Election Board.
Background on newly elected TPS board members
First elected to the TPS board in 2020, Croisant owns an Allstate Insurance agency, and he graduated from the University of Tulsa with a bachelor’s degree in education and political science in 1999.
After starting his teaching career in New Orleans, Croisant returned to Tulsa and taught at Edison Middle School while coaching girls’ soccer at Edison High School between 2006 and 2018.
Smith is an alumnae of Nathan Hale High School and the University of Tulsa, where she now works in the IT department. The mother of four current TPS students, she has been an active PTA parent for the past 12 years.
In an interview prior to the election, Smith credited her motivation to run with her dissatisfaction with former District 6 board member, Jerry Griffin, who resigned Jan. 2.
Moniz will fill the seat formerly held by board member Diamond Marshall, who did not seek reelection after 13 months in office. Marshall was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Judith Barba Perez’s resigned in January 2023.
Moniz works in corporate relations for Ingredion Incorporated, a food and beverage company. Moniz has also served as an appointed member of the City of Tulsa Housing and Urban Development Community Development Committee representing District 4.
A citizen of the Choctaw Nation, Moniz is originally from California. He moved to Tulsa to attend the University of Tulsa, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2006 and a master’s degree of business administration in 2008. He later earned his juris doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2015.
