“We are very concerned by what appeared to be a willful violation of the Open Meeting Act,” spokesperson Phil Bacharach said. “Our office will look further into the matter and take appropriate action.”
Sen. Mary Boren (D-Norman), Rep. Jacob Rosecrants (D-Norman) and Rep. Mike Osburn (R-Edmond) appeared at the meeting, expecting to be allowed into executive session.
Rosecrants told StateImpact at the beginning of the executive session, he and the other lawmakers were asked to make cases for why they should attend and left in a room for about an hour and a half.
The board then convened into regular session and voted to table the issue of letting lawmakers in. But, it also voted to take action on the other issues scheduled for discussion in executive session, like teaching certificate revocations.
“We weren’t in that executive session to have that [discussion]. And I think that’s the biggest issue,” Rosecrants said. “Those conversations happened while we weren’t in the room.”
State law says legislators may attend executive sessions of state agencies, boards or commissions “whenever the jurisdiction of such committee includes the actions of the public body involved.”
After Boren was denied entry to the June meeting’s executive session, the attorney general’s office informed the board it must let lawmakers in. Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement the law was “clear that legislators have significant oversight authority.”
“No elected representative of the people should be prevented from exercising that statutory power,” Drummond said.
Despite Drummond’s guidance and a subsequent letter from Assistant Attorney General Thomas Scheider to the board reiterating that position, Walters told members of the media after the meeting he “requested specifics from the attorney general” and “haven’t heard from them.”
“We’re just going to ask and say, ‘Let’s put this in writing, what do you see here? What’s your advice? Where do you see your role is in advising folks?’” Walters said.
Asked what more clarification was needed from the attorney general, Walters said he wanted to know whether the lawmakers had the statute-required jurisdiction qualification to be included in the meetings.
“We’ve got legal advice that says they absolutely do not have jurisdiction. We are being told by them that the attorney general tells them that they do,” Walters said. “So we’ve asked for more information — that’s where we need clarity of what kind of jurisdiction the individual lawmakers have.”
According to the meeting agenda, the board was scheduled to discuss in executive session whether Boren alone could attend “all executive sessions of the Board.” In the open session before the executive session, Walters instead motioned “to go into executive session to discuss any representatives or senators who wish to come into executive session.”
According to the agenda, the board was supposed to return to open session for “discussion and possible action regarding the matters discussed in executive session” after the executive session on the lawmakers’ admittance. Once open session reconvened, the board voted to table this item.
After reconvening, the board was scheduled to re-enter executive session for the rest of the executive session items. But, the board did not reconvene into executive session. It is unclear if the board discussed the second session’s agenda items in its only executive session, but it did take action on them during the open session.
In the second executive session, it was scheduled to discuss:
- An emergency order suspending the teaching certificates of four teachers
- Once regular session reconvened, the board voted to refer the application to revoke the certificates to a hearing officer.
- Once regular session reconvened, the board voted to accept the voluntary surrender of these certificates and dismiss pending administrative hearings.
- Once regular session reconvened, the board voted to accept the voluntary surrender of these certificates and dismiss pending administrative hearings.
- Once regular session reconvened, the board voted to table the appeals.
Of the four teachers up for emergency suspension, two have made recent headlines.
X account Libs of TikTok posted a screenshot of Ardmore teacher Alison Scott’s social media comment regarding former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt, saying she wished the shooter had a better scope. Walters addressed the issue at the top of the meeting.
“We cannot allow these individuals to teach in the state of Oklahoma,” Walters said. “No one will be allowed to teach in the state of Oklahoma if they advocate [for] the assassination of President Trump or any elected official.”
Edmond English teacher Regan Killackey has been critical of House Bill 1775, Oklahoma’s so-called critical race theory ban. He is also a plaintiff in the ACLU suit over the law.
But after executive session, the board instead voted to allow the teachers to go through normal due process and be sent to a hearing officer - meaning, for now, they keep their teaching certificates.
In comments to members of the media after the meeting, Walters said Boren’s reasoning for wanting to attend the executive session was to get in the way of taking the teaching certificates of “pedophiles.”
“I’ve got left-wing Democrats like Mary [Boren] that want to come in and make it where we can’t remove pedophiles from the classroom,” Walters said. “That’s what she’s wanting to do. She’s wanting to disrupt that process.”
Boren issued a statement Wednesday afternoon questioning whether the board violated the Open Meeting Act.
“It’s disturbing that the superintendent and Board continue to ignore the law that clearly allows legislators to observe their executive sessions, even after Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office has stated they must. In addition, they did not follow their published agenda. I believe a violation of the Open Meeting Act has occurred, nullifying those votes,” Boren wrote. “Following the law is not optional.”
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