

Pressed on their stances Tuesday night, the three candidates for board chairperson of Oklahoma City’s largest school district agreed that immigration enforcement should not occur on campuses but disagreed about how best to reduce cell phone “distraction” in classrooms.
In a 70-minute debate co-hosted by NonDoc and News 9, incumbent Oklahoma City Public Schools Board Chairwoman Paula Lewis defended the district’s proficiency scores and overall performance against criticism from challengers Jan Barrick and Niah Spriggs.
“Oklahoma City Public Schools are the bottom of the bottom,” Barrick said in her closing remarks. “They are the worst of the worst. We don’t have to settle for that. We don’t have to accept that. We don’t have to settle for failed leadership, broken promises, and endless conversations about and excuses why our students are not performing at grade level.”
Lewis, seeking a third term after being elected as the board’s leader in 2017, pushed back against the idea that OKCPS students are “failing” by highlighting student success, including full-ride scholarship recipients and merit scholars.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had people express dissatisfaction with the culture and where we’re moving in this district,” Lewis said near the start of the debate. “We are not a failing district, and that’s what I tell people, is we need to tell the whole story. I would honestly ask my opponents if they’ve actually asked the plan of what we’re doing, or they’re just trying to put a plan in, and they don’t even know what we’re doing right now?”
Spriggs, a former OKCPS teacher who started a homeschool collective in 2023, said her “single biggest issue is academic achievement,” and she argued the district would benefit from implementing an alternative learning model and creating a plan to spur “exponential growth.” Although she provided few specifics about any plan, Spriggs mentioned the historic superintendent turnover rate in OKCPS and the need to partner with current Superintendent Jamie Polk.
“At one point, we had 20 superintendents over 22 years,” Spriggs said. “We need to sit down, develop a commission that will take us over a long Asian-model plan, and while I understand that I will not be the superintendent, we need to sit down and bring the greatest minds [to] OKC. There are people in OKC that have worked with the same population and have achieved greatness. So we need to bring all of these people to the table.”
Voters will select between the three Tuesday, Feb. 11. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the two candidates who receive the most votes will proceed to an April 1 runoff election.
Candidates push back against Superintendent Walters

Hours prior to Tuesday’s debate, Polk and other OKCPS officials attended the State Board of Education meeting at the request of Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and other board members. Lewis attended the meeting but did not participate in the presentation, which focused on the district’s efforts to combat challenges such as chronic absenteeism.
While Walters bestowed compliments and admiration upon OKCPS and its’ administration, his rhetoric and controversial priorities were mostly panned by the candidates Tuesday night. Lewis confidently shared her contempt of Walters’ recent statements supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Oklahoma public schools and the board-approved administrative rule about districts reporting students’ citizenship status to the State Department of Education.
“Do I agree with checking citizenship status? One hundred percent I do not, because constitutionally we don’t have to do it,” Lewis said. “No matter what their skin color is, the melanin on their skin, it doesn’t matter. They have the same color heart, they have the same color blood, they have the same bone structure, they have the same amount of bones, they have all of these things. So it doesn’t matter where their legal immigration status is when it comes to education. If the federal law changes, we’ll have to take a different stance. But until that time, I absolutely vehemently oppose doing this.”
During Tuesday’s state board meeting, Walters doubled-down on the administrative rule requiring public schools to record and report their number of enrolled undocumented students, and afterward he voiced his support for efforts to identify public school parents who may be undocumented.
While noting that fewer students in a school leads to less funding and, in turn, fewer available teaching positions, Spriggs said the threat of potential ICE raids and increased deportations is disrupting the students she teaches.
“I am absolutely against ICE raids in school,” Spriggs said. “There is no need to have children terrorized in school. I have students who are from other countries right now in my class, and they were crying today, and they’ve been crying since, actually, since November, and I had to explain to them that I actually had to bring counselors and things in.”
Like Spriggs, Barrick ultimately agreed schools should not focus on immigration issues. Barrick initially couched her answer to suggest that “if” immigration enforcement had to occur at school it could be done at enrollment and not after classes begin. However, asked to clarify if she thought school-based immigration enforcement was necessary at all, she also said students already feel unsafe in school and that ICE raids would only exacerbate the issue.
“First of all, let me say this, every student in the United States has access to free, equitable, and equal education. It doesn’t matter if they’re legal or not legal,” Barrick said. “I don’t think [ICE raids are] necessary, and I agree with Mrs. Spriggs, we shouldn’t interrupt the students. Let’s do it somewhere else. Let’s not do it at the school level. We can do it somewhere else.”
All three candidates also disagreed with Walters’ recent mandate to place Bibles in school history and government classrooms, a rule with vague instructions that many say infringes on individuals’ religious freedom.
Referencing OKCPS students’ low proficiency rates on English and math exams, Spriggs said the district should prioritize improving student outcomes.
“We need to focus on addition and subtraction, multiplication, division and reading,” Spriggs said. We need to get back to the basics. When we get the children and everybody’s reading on grade level and things like that (…), then we can have a conversation, but we do not need to have every teacher in a classroom teaching the Bible.”
During district “listening sessions” with students, parents and community members, Lewis said parents have indicated they do not want the Bible taught in school and emphasized parental choice.
“When we had our listening sessions across this district, it didn’t matter if I was at Spencer or was at Quail Creek or was at U.S. Grant, hand after hand after hand raised and said, ‘I do not want teachers teaching my kid the Bible,’” Lewis said. “This is not about anti-Christianity. It’s about what parents said. Parents said, ‘No.’”
Barrick emphasized there was never a rule stating schools could not have Bibles in the classroom.
“When I was a teacher, I read Bible stories to my students every single day, but I do agree that I don’t think anybody wants teachers or undesignated people to teach the Bible, Barrick said. “I don’t think anybody wants that, but I think Bibles in the classroom — I don’t think there was ever anybody that said we couldn’t have Bibles in the classroom. We’re just bringing them back.”
Lewis supports district-wide cellphone ban

With the Oklahoma Legislature poised to consider a bill this year that would mandate a “bell to bell” cell phone ban at all public school districts, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would support such a move in OKCPS, where cell phone policies are currently set at each individual school. Lewis was the only candidate to signal support.
“I think if you look at the data that comes out of screen time with kids and how that’s affecting their mental wellness, yes, I think we probably do need to look at that,” Lewis said. “Our district is already looking at that. I’m expecting a recommendation within probably the next year to come in front of the board for that very thing, because it is important that we address the wellness of our children’s mental health.”
Although Barrick said she agrees cell phones are a distraction, she said she does not support a district-wide ban.
“So personally, I am against cell phones in the classroom, but here’s the real answer. The real answer is about teachers choosing,” she said. “If I were a teacher, (…) I would say, ‘When you come into this classroom, you put your cell phone in the basket. When you leave this classroom, you can pick up the cell phone.’”
Citing her experiences as a mother of five and as an elementary-level teacher, Spriggs said she is aware of the challenges cell phones bring to the classroom. However, she also noted that cell phones can be used as a learning tool.
“Cell phones are a distraction, so I’m not going to play like they’re not,” Spriggs said. “But I will say that in my school, we actually use the cell phone. So if they come to me and they ask me a question, I immediately say, go tell me what the definition (…) is and things like that. So we have to be able to use the cell phone. The cell phones are here, this is 2025. And so we can use the cell phones in a responsible way to where we can get students to learn on the cell phones.”
Candidates address leadership questions, potential conflicts

Last year’s resignation of popular OKCPS Superintendent Sean McDaniel has drawn questions from parents and teachers about Lewis’ leadership of the district’s board. as his resignation letter led many people to believe McDaniel’s six-year working relationship with Lewis deteriorated owing to some sort of conflict.
In McDaniel’s resignation letter, he wrote that “a particular member of this board and I have completely different views regarding individual board members’ roles and responsibilities and mine in serving this district.” Many people believed Lewis was the board member in question.
Asked about the situation Tuesday, Lewis applauded McDaniels for his historic achievements while serving as superintendent and initially declined to discuss how his departure unfolded. Pressed for details about reported tension over the role of a superintendent and the role of board members, Lewis offered more clarity.
“There’s a constant conversation about the role of the superintendent and the board. Ultimately, as the chair, you are the one that delivers the communication from the board — individual board members — to the superintendent on most times and from the community,” Lewis said. “Over the last couple of years, we had some concerns from our community coming forth — whether it be the Capitol Hill High School situation, we’re looking at that — or charters and putting them into our bond (package). There were several things that were honestly pretty hard conversations, and as an Open Records Act (request) showed, in an email to him, I said, ‘This board very much vales alignment with the superintendent but will not value that alignment over its responsibility to its constituents and the community.’”
Both Spriggs and Barrick revealed that they have had their own individual conversations with McDaniel following his departure, which they said left them concerned regarding the district’s ability to continue or enhance improvement projects the former superintendent set forth. Both candidates also answered questions about their own backgrounds and campaigns.
Barrick’s campaign website displays an endorsement from former Rep. Sally Kern (R-Bethany), who infamously became Oklahoma’s poster politician for anti-LGBTQ sentiment after she said homosexuality constitutes a greater threat to America than terrorism.
Asked about the endorsement, Barrick said she did not know of Kern’s statements, even though Kern introduced several bills during her legislative career that sought to limit gay marriage rights, permit businesses to deny goods and services to LGBTQ people and prohibit the state from interfering with conversion therapy.
“First of all, I didn’t know that Sally said that,” Barrick said. “I think all students have the same — everyone has the right to a quality education, an equitable education. And Sally is a friend of my friend, and I’ve met her. I know her, but I did not know she said that.”
As a member of the LGBTQ community, Lewis said the endorsement does cause some concern.
“Again, we’re back to harmful rhetoric,” Lewis said. “It was a long time ago, and I’m sure the students today don’t remember that, but as a member of LGBTQ at that time, growing my career, it was harmful and it was hurtful, and it’s the same kind of rhetoric we’re seeing today. So yes, it’s a concern.”
According to LinkedIn, Spriggs has completed short tenures with nine different employers during her 20-year professional career — some of which span less than a year — culminating in her founding of Neat Education Solutions in 2023 to support homeschooled students.
Asked about her career, Spriggs said NEAT does not pose a conflict of interest owing to the fact the micro-school is a homeschool co-op and not a publicly funded institution. Additionally, she said she is committed to completing a full four-year term if elected as the next OKCPS board chairwoman.
“As to how many jobs I’ve had, that’s really interesting because I’ve just been a teacher,” Spriggs said. “I took a small, short break to help my family start a business. So it was not any commitment issues. I am very committed to being the Oklahoma City Public School Board chair and you will not be able to get rid of me — at least not like that.”