The three candidates running to be chairperson of the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education have agreed to a public debate scheduled as part of NonDoc’s political debate series.
Hosted in partnership between NonDoc and News 9, the OKCPS Board Battle is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the Metro Tech District Center auditorium, 1900 Springlake Drive in northeast Oklahoma City. Attendance is free and open to the public. The District Center entrance is accessible from Springlake Drive just west of Martin Luther King Avenue.
Oklahoma City voters within the OKCPS district will cast ballots Tuesday, Feb. 11, to choose between incumbent Chairwoman Paula Lewis and her two challengers, Alpha Plus Educational Systems founder Jan Barrick and educator Niah Spriggs.
All questions during the debate will be written and asked by professional journalists. Streamed on News9.com and the Facebook pages of NonDoc and News 9, the debate will be moderated by NonDoc editor in chief Tres Savage and News 9 State Capitol reporter Haley Weger. The Metro Tech Multimedia Journalism program is also a partner for the debate to lead post-debate fact-checking.
Sponsors of NonDoc’s 2025 debate series include AARP Oklahoma, the Scholars Strategy Network and the Oklahoma district council of the Urban Land Institute.
Those wishing to be reminded of the debate and its livestream can RSVP on the Facebook event page, although no RSVP is required to attend.
Incumbent faces two challengers
A co-owner of Quest Pediatric Therapy, Lewis was elected by default to serve as the OKCPS District 7 board representative in 2016, and voters subsequently elected her districtwide as chairwoman in 2017. She was reelected in 2021 and is now running for a third term as chairwoman.
Spriggs, an educator and entrepreneur according to her campaign website, was born and raised in OKC. A first-generation college student, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in urban education, according to her LinkedIn.
Barrick is the former CEO of Alpha Plus Educational Systems, a data-driven school improvement firm she initially founded as a tutoring company in 1986. After almost 40 years, Barrick retired from the company in April before filing for the OKCPS board chairperson position in December.
