Seventeen former Tulsa school board members on Wednesday signed off on a letter saying current members’ actions earlier this week had “jeopardized the immediate future of our district, its students, families and employees as if they were pawns in a political game.”
They issued a public call for civility and a return to focusing on the needs of students.
“We urge you to get back on the road of the hard, but invaluable and rewarding work of serving students and not personal disputes or politics. This cannot wait until the next board election — the board has to work together now. Our kids don’t have a dress rehearsal,” states the letter addressed to the current board of education and shared with the Tulsa World.
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“Our city fails without public education,” the letter continues. “The future of our community is not sustainable without a strong local school board who uses student success as their compass at all times.”
The absence of one board member and a 3-3 split among the remaining six members resulted in the failure of approval of a host of routine business needs at Monday’s board meeting, including contracts for 32 new teachers and school support personnel, 30 staffing transfers within the district, teacher recruitment stipends, encumbrance orders for supplies and summer pay for more than 30 school transportation workers.
Board members Jennettie Marshall and E’Lena Ashley voted against everything on Monday night’s consent agenda, while member Jerry Griffin voted against 12 of the 28 items on the consent agenda. With Judith Barba Perez absent, the tied vote caused the failure of those 12 items.
After Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist used the superintendent’s report portion of the agenda to lodge her objection and make clear the practical implications of the board’s votes on those items, shouting broke out between members Marshall and John Croisant, and then Marshall, Ashley and Griffin walked out, ending the meeting.
Tempers boiled over July 11 at Tulsa Public Schools’ Board of Education meeting after Superintendent Deborah Gist voiced her concerns about some of the board's decisions. Video courtesy/TPS
The board is set to meet once again in a special meeting Thursday afternoon and reconsider some of the failed items.
“In the over 135 years of our collective service on the Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education, never once has there been a meeting like that held on July 11, 2022,” the letter from former members states.
“Every signer can remember passionate disagreement, uncomfortable situations, even palpable tension in the room in the many, many school board meetings where we presided as board members. But not one of us can recall anything like what occurred this past Monday. … Our code of ethics dictates that we ‘remember always that our first and greatest concern must be the educational welfare of the students attending public schools.’”
