Several area school districts with board primaries, bond packages to be decided next month

Judith Barba, Marsha Francine Campbell and Theresa Hinman are vying to succeed Jania Wester, who chose not to seek a second term due to work-related travel obligations.

The area served by District 2 includes Kendall-Whittier, McKinley, Mitchell, Owen, Sequoyah, and Springdale elementary schools; Carver and Will Rogers College middle schools; and Booker T. Washington and Will Rogers College high schools.

If no single candidate earns a majority of the votes cast, the top two finishers will appear on the general election ballot on April 6 along with the race in District 3.

Originally from Jalisco, Mexico, Barba moved to Tulsa five years ago and currently works as a manager at Growing Together Tulsa in the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood.

With more than one-third of all TPS students identifying as Hispanic and one-fifth identifying as English language learners, Barba said her ability to communicate with families in both English and Spanish is a valuable asset, particularly when it comes to increasing parent involvement.

“I want the immigrant parents to see that we have to get involved,” she said. “All the decisions that happen at the top affect us all. We have different cultures, colors and ways of communicating, but I want to keep having all those families’ voices heard on the board.”

Among her priorities is emphasizing multicultural and culturally sensitive education for students, including providing culturally relevant learning materials for students that take into account the specific needs at each site.

“We need to have our schools think about the populations they’re serving,” she said. “For example, Springdale does not serve the same community as Kendall-Whittier.”

A retired educator, Campbell taught science, math and engineering technology at Monroe Demonstration School and McLain High School for a combined 17 years.

Campbell decided to run after attempts to reach out to District 2 representatives and include them in the McLain community went unanswered. Although McLain High School’s campus is in District 3, the attendance areas for the two southernmost schools within its feeder pattern are in District 2.

“I just could not get a response,” she said. “I didn’t think that was right.”

Drawing on both her experience as a teacher and growing up with in a community with limited teacher turnover, she said one of her priorities if elected would be to find a way to maintain largely stable faculty rosters around the district in order to provide a consistent support network for students.

“I had six or seven principals in 13 years at McLain,” she said. “That’s probably the same situation at many of the other schools. I want to focus on how we retain people in the positions because that helps the children.”

A citizen of the Ponca Nation, Hinman attended three schools within the boundaries of District 2 as a student.

After attending school board meetings for the better part of a year, she cited the community reactions to the January 2020 decision to close Grimes, Jones, Wright and Mark Twain elementary schools as a key motivator in her decision to run.

“Those families were crying and begging the board not to close their schools,” she said. “There’s been a pattern of neighborhood schools closing and charter schools going in. “There is strong fear that it’ll happen in this district and I don’t want that to happen here.”

If elected, her top priorities include getting students back in the classroom as quickly and safely as possible and like Campbell, being accessible to constituents.

“Many of the parents I’ve talked to have not had emails or phone calls returned from school board members,” she said. “I grew up in this district and I don’t see parents as someone I can disregard. I see each parent as someone’s mom or dad who doesn’t want to be invisible or ignored.”

Three suburban districts are also asking voters to go to the polls on Feb. 9.

In Owasso, Lisa Anderson, Lynn Cagle, Rick Lang, Stephanie Ruttman and Kristin Vivar are all running in Ward 1, which covers the northeastern portion of the district. The incumbent, President Pat Vanatta, is not seeking another five-year term.

In Collinsville, Ryan Flanary and James Roderick are challenging Tim Reed for seat No. 1. The position comes with a five-year term.

To the south, Jenks Public Schools is putting a two-part $16.1 million bond package before voters.

Proposition No. 1 includes $5 million for expansion and renovation of the Jenks Freshman Academy, $1.1 million for new textbooks, $2 million for ventilation system upgrades and other maintenance needs and $3.1 million for the district’s technology needs, including additional servers, television monitors, wireless network.

Proposition No. 2 covers a single item: $1,045,000 for transportation needs.

School board primary elections are also scheduled for seat No. 1 on Pawhuska Public Schools’ board of education and seat No. 1 for Nowata Public Schools.

Other northeastern Oklahoma school districts with a bond issue on the Feb. 9 ballot include Caney Valley, Depew and Leach.

The deadline for absentee ballot requests is 5 p.m. Tuesday. A provision allowing absentee voters to include a photocopy of a valid ID card with their ballots expired in December, so absentee ballots must be notarized in order to be counted.

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