Tulsa Public Schools administration has new blood and is praising other shake-ups.
TPS Superintendent Ebony Johnson gave her monthly update to the State Board of Education Wednesday morning. Johnson said in time for the 2024-2025 school year, almost every person in her cabinet at TPS is "new." The cabinet team helps set the strategic direction for the district.
“I’m excited to lead alongside some great team members,” said Johnson.
Chief Financial Officer Kristin Stephens, who's been in her role for two months, was singled out to speak. She told board members before she became a certified accountant, she was a teacher and support worker in Broken Arrow schools.
“I can affirm that in my first two months we have addressed a lot of internal control issues, some transparency issues. I can affirm the team we have in place at the finance division is super excited about the work that’s coming,” Stephens said.
Tulsa Public Schools has continuously battled to improve its financial management. Last fall, former employee Devin Fletcher pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud that caused a loss of more than $600,000 for the district and its nonprofit foundation.
Superintendent Johnson went on to highlight other leadership changes within TPS schools, efforts to chip away at Tulsa’s chronic absenteeism problem, and a new policy that will see students stowing their cell phones.
Chief Strategy Officer Sean Berkstresser presented what he called “the most exciting part” of TPS’ update. He said the district got its Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) results back late last week and saw a significant jump.
“We’re proud to say we achieved an increase of an overall five point improvement in the percentage of kids that were testing at basic, proficient, or advanced. So across all grade levels overall, an improvement of five points, which we were very excited about,” said Berkstresser.
Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has been a fierce critic of TPS, though he’s lately softened his rhetoric. He continued his streak of positive comments Wednesday, calling the updates a “huge success” for Tulsa.
