Following Gov. Kevin Stitt’s decision to shake up the Oklahoma State Board of Education, three new appointees clashed with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters over controversial, but previously approved, immigration administrative rules and concerns about board oversight during a meeting today. The exchanges marked the first real pushback Walters has received from the State Board of Education since he took office.
“Why am I here?” newly appointed board member Ryan Deatherage asked in apparent frustration toward the end of the meeting.
Deatherage’s comment was the culmination of a series of spats the new board members had with Walters and the board’s attorney, Chad Kutmas. Throughout the meeting, Deatherage and the other two new board members attempted to wrest some control over the meeting away from Walters, and they asked for a new vote on a controversial immigration rule the board approved last month, which Kutmas said could not occur because it was not on the day’s agenda. At one point, the new members seemed to become frustrated with Kutmas’ repeated assertions that control of board meeting agendas lies with Walters, the board’s chairman.
“I will say you guys were appointed here pretty recently,” Walters said during the meeting. “The governor decided to put you guys on this board on a very short timeline. This has been something that’s been going on nearly 10 months here. And so, you know, we try to get the materials in front of you as quick as possible. But also the understanding that this has been — look, I don’t know, most of this has remained fairly intact from when we submitted it.”
Stitt appointed Deatherage, the 911 director for Kingfisher County, attorney Michael Tinney and chief financial officer of Mint Turbines Chris VanDenhende to the board Feb. 11. All three members had been sworn in before the meeting began Thursday morning. They must be confirmed by the State Senate before this year’s legislative session concludes no later than May 30.
After Stitt appointed the new members, he said he did not like the board’s previous approval of Walters’ proposed rule regarding immigration status, which Stitt said made kids “political pawns.” If allowed to take effect, the rule would require school districts to report students’ citizenship status to the State Department of Education. Walters has pledged to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the agency ramps up its efforts to deport undocumented immigrants under President Donald Trump.
Walters also recently asked Attorney General Gentner Drummond for an opinion on how a recent executive order from Trump regarding funding and immigration affects Oklahoma schools.
Less than five minutes into the start of Thursday’s meeting, VanDenhende interrupted Walters’ opening comments about his request for an AG opinion to ask about the immigration rule. (Video of the exchange is embedded below.)
“I’m concerned about the immigration status issue because we have a lot of pushback in my area from parents, students,” VanDenhende said. “I would respectfully request that until we get all of this sorted out to the [attorney general], that we suspend all activity related to immigration.”
Kutmas, the board’s attorney, informed VanDenhende that the Open Meeting Act prohibited the board from discussing or taking action on any items not presented on the day’s agenda.
VanDenhende then requested a special meeting to address the issue. Kutmas said he could submit the request after the meeting but said the board could not vote on any request not already on the agenda.
Although VenDenhende sparked the exchange with Walters, Deatherage and Tinney also appeared concerned about the the lack of opportunity for board members to add items to the agenda.
“So is it totally in the superintendent’s discretion whether to put it on the agenda?” Tinney asked.
Kutmas responded: “The superintendent, as his role as the chairman of the board, sets the agenda.”
Tinney requested legal receipts.
“Is there a law that says that?” Tinney asked. “Where is the statute that says the board has no authority to set anything on an agenda or request it or if the board voted to say, ’We want this on the agenda next time subject to open meeting,’ where [does it say] we can’t do that?”
Kutmas offered no statute or policy in response. Instead, he told members the topic of conversation was veering far from what was presented on the agenda. He said he would be more than willing to talk to members with concerns at a later date.
Thursday’s meeting was not the first time that State Board of Education members have clashed with a state superintendent over how to call special meetings and set agendas. In April 2022, Stitt-appointed members expressed frustration with then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister regarding meeting agendas. Similar tension had brewed a year prior regarding a resolution to resolve a lawsuit over charter school funding.
After Thursday’s meeting, VanDenhende said the current situation is “frustrating to everybody.”
“That’s all I want to say,” he said. “We’ve got new people. We’re trying to work through this. We’ll try to get it figured out. There’s a lot of balls in the air, so let’s not get too excited about anything and just work through the stuff and think about the kids and what we’re doing.”
Board approves social studies standards 6-1
During his opening comments, Walters also praised OSDE’s overhaul of the state’s social studies standards, which board members eventually voted to send to the Legislature later in the meeting. OSDE revises academic standards every six years. Last revised in 2019, the new social studies standards have drawn criticism from some stakeholders in the state owing to their increased references to the Bible and Christianity.
“This is an important step to ensuring our kids have a well-rounded education and understand American exceptionalism and understand civics and understand our Constitution and those constitutional principles,” Walters said during his comments. “These new standards will ensure that kids have an accurate and comprehensive view of historical events, while also reinforcing the values that make our country grow. (…) I encourage full support for these new rigorous standards, and I remain fully committed that our children learn the full and true context of our nation’s founding and the principles that made America great and will continue to make us an exceptional country.”
OSDE program director of standards and learning Sharon Morgan and project manager for social studies and personal financial literacy Brenda Beymer-Chapman gave a presentation of the standards review process in which they highlighted the changes made from the previous standards approved in 2019 and 2020.
Beymer-Chapman focused her presentation on the department’s desire to “strengthen” the civic and constitutional studies to expand on and include detailed curriculum on local, state and national levels of government, as well as additional standards of teaching tribal sovereignty.
Most of the new board members’ questions about the standards were targeted toward the review process. Deatherage motioned to table the vote of approval until a later date. Deatherage also suggested a possible special meeting to conduct the vote to allow new members time to thoroughly review the updated standards.
“I would really like these to be voted and approved today,” Walters said. “We’ve been working on these for over a year. They’ve been available to the public for months. The Legislature will start a review process. We are getting close to a deadline that, if we delay very long, we could be hindering that. So my recommendation is that we approve these today. The process has been followed. There’s been a lot of feedback here, and we can move these on to the Legislature and take any of their inputs.”
VanDenhende seconded Deatherage’s tabling motion, but after discussion — during which he said he would be willing to approve the standards under the condition members would be allowed to work closely with legislators to address their concerns — he voted against the tabling motion, which failed 1-6.
After a 15-minute discussion weighing the board’s options regarding the standards, members ultimately approved the science and social studies standards 6-1, with Deatherage as the only member to dissent.
“My question was never the quality of work that’s gone into [the academic standards],” Deatherage said before the vote. “It was for me to understand. It was more of an understanding process. Let me be clear on that. I was not challenging what is in here. It was challenging the time frame that it takes to get from this binder into my hand. That’s what I was challenging.”
Board takes action on 10 teacher certifications
Toward the end of the meeting, board members entered into executive session to discuss the teaching certifications of 10 public school teachers — a significant decrease compared to the number of teachers called to question in recent months. Board members suspended and sent applications to revoke the certificates of four teachers:
- Dylan Nagode, a former Chickasha Public Schools fine arts teacher who was fired during a Nov. 12 termination hearing conducted by the district’s board. No information about the reason for the recommendation has been made public;
- Terah Wright, a Haworth Public Schools teacher who is currently on administrative leave after she was charged in McCurtain County District Court with three counts of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor and one count involving possession of child pornography. Wright is alleged to have had relationships with at least four Haworth students ranging from ages 14 to 18, according to a KTAL News report. In a September 2023 TikTok post, Wright wrote that, “Coaching cheer is weird [because] I spend everyday with teenagers who don’t belong to me, but I feel like they are mine and they drive me crazy. But I miss them if I don’t see them for a day”;
- Clifton Harris, a former Okmulgee Public Schools teacher who received his emergency teaching certification from SBE in October 2024; and
- Yolanda Dunbar, a former Hugo Middle School special education teacher who was charged with two counts of felony child abuse after allegedly abusing three of her students, according to The Oklahoman. The boys’ parents are seeking $20 million from Hugo Public Schools asserting negligence because “no one intervened to protect these nonverbal, vulnerable and disabled boys.”
The board also accepted voluntary certificate surrenders from:
- Traci Schall, a former Edmond Public Schools teacher. Schall’s teacher certification was scheduled to expire in June;
- Adrian Waller, a former stem teacher at Kiowa Public Schools;
- America Fulmer, a former Enid Public Schools counselor and science teacher; and
- Sheila Raines, a former Hugo Middle School teacher who received her emergency teaching certification in August. The Hugo school board accepted Raines resignation at the same Feb. 7 meeting where a dismissal hearing was scheduled for Yolanda Dunbar, according to a KTEN report.
Board members also took action to withdraw the suspension application for former Hinton High School teacher Courtney Peck, whose teacher certification was suspended during the December SBE meeting.
Lastly, the board made a final determination to revoke the teaching certification of former Webster Middle School special education probationary teacher Stephen Gainor after receiving a hearing officer’s proposed findings.
Although the incident was not reported to law enforcement, Gainor was terminated from his position during a May 2023 Oklahoma City Public Schools special board meeting. The meeting was called to conduct a termination hearing for Gainor following a February 2023 incident where he “used his right hand to hold down [the student’s] left hip bone and his left hand on [the student’s] head on the ground,” to restrain an upset 11-year-old boy.
According to district case documents, Gainor had aggressively and inappropriately held the student down for about three minutes and was also accused of failing to safeguard confidential student records.
(Update: This article was updated at 7:05 p.m. Thursday, March 6, to correct reference to Clifton Harris.)
Watch Walters’ exchange with new board members
