Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton
Tulsa World Staff Writer
Tulsa Public Schools will no longer be required to provide monthly in-person reports before the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
At Thursday’s meeting, the board voted 5-0 to eliminate the in-person reporting requirement and instead move to an informal arrangement where TPS will be able to provide updates only as needed.
TPS representatives have had to make presentations about the district in person before the board for a year as one of the requirements to keep the district’s accreditation amid last summer’s threatened state takeover.
Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Ebony Johnson speaks to the State Board of Education on Thursday. TPS representatives have had to make presentations about the district in person before the board for a year as one of the requirements to keep the district’s accreditation amid last summer’s threatened state takeover.
A similar notion was floated at the board’s August meeting by board member Zachary Archer but was rebuffed by state Superintendent Ryan Walters and Claremore-based board member Sarah Lepak.
However, both praised TPS Superintendent Ebony Johnson and the district’s leadership at Thursday’s meeting for their efforts to address questions and concerns from board members and OSDE staff.
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“You guys have gotten to see this over a year now,” Walters said. “Every expectation we’ve put in front of them, they’ve met. We’ve asked for a lot of information from them. They come in and go beyond with the information that’s provided to us.
Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Ebony Johnson, center left, Chief Financial Officer Kristin Stephens, center right, and Deputy Superintendent Kathy Dodd, right, speak with Oklahoma Board of Education member Katie Quebedeaux, left, during a break Thursday at the monthly State Board of Education meeting.
“They’re a true example of what transparency and leadership can look like.”
In a separate 5-0 vote, the board voted to renew TPS’ accreditation as part of a larger motion to approve accreditation recommendations for all schools and districts statewide.
Accreditation is the process by which the State Board of Education determines whether schools have met a whole host of minimum state standards and should be authorized or recognized by the state for another year.
School accreditation in Oklahoma has six tiers: accreditation with no deficiencies, accreditation with one deficiency, accreditation with deficiencies, accreditation with warning, accreditation with probation and non-accredited.
TPS’ new accreditation status was not specified during the meeting. A TPS representative said after the meeting that the district was told it would be recommended for accreditation with deficiencies but as of Thursday afternoon, had not seen the official written accreditation report.
Prior to Thursday’s meeting, OSDE only publicly posted accreditation information about the 13 districts and charters recommended for probation or a warning. An agency spokesman did not respond to inquiries about why the accreditation recommendations for all other schools and districts were not published to the OSDE’s website.
Meanwhile, a TPS-authorized charter school, KIPP Tulsa, was among nine entities accredited with warning Thursday, an improvement from the previous school year when it was accredited on probation.
A district or individual campus that is accredited with a warning means the site fails to meet at least one state standard and that the deficiency detracts from the quality of the school’s educational programs.
As per a report from OSDE’s accreditation division, KIPP Tulsa’s recommendation was due to financial reporting issues, including not maintaining proper documentation from credit card purchases and the board not approving encumbrance reports in a timely manner.
The charter school was also penalized for violating the Open Meeting Act with board meeting minutes not meeting the minimum statutory requirements and the board meeting agendas characterized as vague and “not easily understood by the public.”
Other districts and charter schools recommended for accreditation with warning include Bokoshe, Cave Springs, Cleveland, Hulbert, Insight Virtual Charter School, Kenwood, Ninnekah and Perry.
Four western Oklahoma districts were recommended for accreditation with probation: Billings, Straight, Optima and Western Heights.
