Following a chaotic two weeks of education news, members of the State Board of Education met today and displayed resistance to a new attorney general opinion that supports legislators observing executive session conversations in most instances.
Additionally, board members took action on revocation proceedings for 14 different teacher certificates in a meeting devoid of an executive session.
Released late Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s opinion directs state boards — in almost all situations — to follow a statute allowing lawmakers to the observe executive sessions of agency governing bodies when a lawmaker serves on a legislative committee that has oversight of that agency.
“It strains credibility and common sense that any legislator would be barred from the executive session of a state agency they oversee,” said Drummond in a press release accompanying the opinion. “The law is clear: Legislators have broad oversight authority whether an agency or board likes it or not.”
The executive session controversy stems from State Board of Education meetings in June and July where members refused to let state legislators observe executive sessions.
But although board members did not go into executive session during their meeting Thursday, they did discuss and express frustration about Drummond’s opinion, which is generally considered binding on state officials and bodies unless a court rules otherwise.
Board member Sarah Lepak, the longest serving board member and the holder of a law degree from the University of Kansas, said Drummond’s opinion functionally means executive session discussions are no longer confidential.
“We do (…) take very seriously the reasons to be in executive session, which include things like protecting the identity of minors, protecting their private information,” Lepak said.
Board members ultimately took no action regarding the AG opinion and executive session questions, but they seemed open to potentially pursuing litigation about the topic in the future.
The board’s attorney, Cara Nicklas, said Drummond created “confusion” with his opinion and implied that the board had lost power as a result of the development.
“Yesterday, boards and agencies had the ability to go into executive session as a public body and receive privileged communications with their board counsel in the circumstances that statute allows,” Nicklas said. “That ability has been removed as of yesterday, and that’s the issue that needs to be explored.”
Nicklas, whose contract with the board was renewed Thursday, said she had relied upon a 1978 attorney general opinion to bar lawmakers from observing executive sessions in June and July. Drummond’s new opinion included withdrawal of the 1978 opinion, and Nicklas said the board could seek a final resolution on the matter from a judge.
“The concern is that you have a number of individual proceedings and need to go into executive session to seek legal counsel that is considered to be privileged communication,” Nicklas said. “So just going forward, you would just recognize that you don’t have the benefit of executive session for your individual proceedings in your desire to seek legal counsel.”
In his new opinion, Drummond said the 1978 legal guidance — offered in response to a question from then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Leslie Fisher about legislators observing executive session portions of local school board meetings — construed Title 25, Section 310 too narrowly.
“It is not the substance of the executive session item and the state body’s action relating thereto that determines whether Section 310 applies, but whether the committee that the legislator serves on has general oversight of that state body,” Drummond wrote.
Drummond pushed back on the State Board of Education’s discussion in a statement Thursday afternoon.
“The State Board of Education may not like the law, but its members still must follow it,” Drummond said. “This provision has been in effect for more than 45 years, and I am not aware of a single other state entity that has a problem allowing legislators in to executive session.”
After the meeting, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said he was not opposed to legislators observing executive sessions, but he said he was “trying to ensure that we’re above board legally.”
“What I want is legal clarity,” Walters said. “When you act on advice of legal counsel, what you are doing there is you’ve got a legal opinion from the person who legally represents you that says, ‘I do not think that these lawmakers legally should be in this room.'”
Five legislators attended Thursday’s meeting:
- Senate Education Committee Chairman Adam Pugh (R-Edmond);
- House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education Vice Chairman Dick Lowe (R-Amber);
- Rep. Mike Osburn (R-Edmond), who sits on the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education;
- Rep. John Talley (R-Stillwater); and
- Rep. Jacob Rosecrants (D-Norman), who sits on the House Common Education Committee.
Board takes more teacher certification action
The agenda for Thursday’s meeting came out before Drummond’s opinion, and it did not give board members an option to go into executive session, although it featured many items — such as teacher certification — that members often discuss behind closed doors before taking public votes.
Instead, members relied on information given to them for the meeting and voted on teacher certification actions with little discussion.
After months of delay, board members took action regarding the now-expired teaching certificate of Summer Boismier, a former Norman High School English teacher who provoked the ire of Walters in August 2022 by covering her classroom library with red paper and writing “books the state doesn’t want you to read” on it.
Board members approved a motion authorizing Walters to “sign off” on a proposed order from a hearing officer regarding Boismier. Walters told reporters after the meeting that the order was to revoke Boismier’s certificate despite the fact that it expired on its own June 30.
“She broke the law,” Walters said. “I said from the beginning, when you have a teacher that breaks the law, says she broke the law, says she’ll continue to break the law, that can’t stand.”
Boismier resigned just days into the 2022-2023 school year after making headlines for covering her classroom display of books and posting a QR code that linked to the Books Unbanned webpage of the Brooklyn Public Library.
The display was an apparent response to a new NPS policy requiring all teachers to review their personal classroom libraries to make sure the books didn’t violate House Bill 1775, Oklahoma’s purported ban on “critical race theory.” Sections of that law were recently invalidated by a federal judge.
Walters, who was still campaigning for state superintendent at the time, called for Boismier’s certification to be revoked and initiated proceedings to do so after he took office. At the time, Walters made numerous social media posts and other comments about Boismier, leading her to sue him for defamation. She has since moved to New York and did not file to renew her Oklahoma educator certificate this year, dynamics that have led some to argue Walters is simply carrying out a political vendetta.
On Thursday, board members also approved an amended application to revoke Edmond Memorial High School English teacher Regan Killackey’s certificate, although they left his license intact in the meantime.
Board members had sent an initial application to revoke Killackey’s certificate to a hearing officer at their July meeting.
The action against Killackey stems from a photo he posted on Facebook in 2019. In the photo, which was one of a few he posted with his children in a Halloween store, Killackey and his son can be seen with his daughter, who is wearing a mask of former President Donald Trump. Killackey and his son pointed fake swords toward the Trump mask in the photo.
Board members suspended the teacher certificates pending formal revocation hearings for:
- Nicholas Plank; and
- Phil Koons.
Koons, a former Ringling football coach, is facing a criminal charge of “outraging public decency” in Jefferson County District Court and a federal civil lawsuit regarding his allegedly abusive leadership of the team.
Board members also referred applications to revoke six teacher certificates to a hearing officer but left their licenses intact for now:
- Sarah Butterworth;
- Sean Finch;
- Patrick McKay;
- Thomas Lenard;
- Roger Carroll; and
- Jayme Stepp, who is facing an assault and battery charge for accusations involving a special education student in Norman.
For four other educators, board members approved amended applications for revocation of their teacher certificates after having already approved initial revocation applications:
- Scott Renken, a Guymon Public Schools teacher who was involved in some sort of social media controversy in 2023 for posting about student vandalism while teaching in Perryton, Texas. Months later, he lost his position as basketball coach at the school;
- Anthony Deason, who was indicted in March in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma for attempted sexual exploitation of a minor;
- Alison Scott, a former Ardmore Public Schools teacher who posted on Facebook that she wished the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump had been successful; and
- Regan Killackey.
Board members accepted voluntary surrender of the teacher certificates of:
- Amanda Bristow, who was fired from Deer Creek Public Schools after allegedly giving students sleep medication without parental permission; and
- Donald R. Holt, a former Stigler High School teacher facing charges for child pornography allegations.
Board members accepted the dismissal of proceedings against William Mooney, a former Catoosa Public Schools teacher who was recently barred from the profession by a court order in a misdemeanor plea deal to resolve allegations that he had improperly touched at least 10 girls.
