Watch Now: Gist responds to Stitt's call for special state audit of Tulsa Public Schools

Gov. Kevin Stitt announced on Facebook and Twitter on Thursday afternoon that he has requested a special audit of Tulsa Public Schools.

Stitt said his request to State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd was prompted by contacts from two local school board members, but his request also seeks probes into two additional matters.

Although Stitt did not name them in his announcement, the Tulsa school board members who sought his formal audit request were E’Lena Ashley of TPS Board District 4 and Jennettie Marshall of TPS Board District 3.

In their letter provided by the Governor’s Office, the two referred only to a recently publicized internal school district investigation into possible financial losses “at the hands of a District employee,” adding: “There is significant concern and substantiating evidence that processes and state contract laws may have been violated, and that this is not a one-time situation but a pattern of operation.”

Last week, TPS officials announced the discovery of almost $20,000 in irregularities tied to a vendor contract within the district’s personnel office. Those irregularities are alleged to have happened more than two years ago but were brought to administrators’ attention within the last month and turned over to local law enforcement on June 27, Superintendent Deborah Gist said.

Stitt’s request for a special state audit also seeks a probe into Tulsa Public Schools’ use of pandemic relief funds.

Gist said she welcomed outside scrutiny, including by the State Auditor’s Office, but she thinks taxpayers should “consider the source” of Thursday’s state audit request, which she called “unfortunate” and “political theater.”

“This is a governor, Kevin Stitt, and his colleague, (Stitt’s appointed secretary of education) Ryan Walters, who wrote an $18 million check to an out-of-state entity with no bidding process, and already a review of that has identified half a million dollars in inappropriate, questionable funds — people buying everything from car stereos to gaming consoles to power washers and including about $200,000 in televisions,” Gist said. “So I think it’s important to keep context in place.”

Gist said she is confident in her administration’s use of pandemic relief funds and defended her handling of the ongoing issue with a TPS vendor contract.

“There’s certainly a good reason for everyone in Tulsa to have a question about this situation. I’m concerned about this situation, which is why I have acted decisively and swiftly at every moment, never wasting a day, working tirelessly to determine what was going on and to resolve the situation and including the proper authorities the moment it seemed that was necessary.”

Gist said the known dollar amount in question is less than $20,000 but TPS is committed to cooperating with a local police investigation to determine whether any other monies could have been mishandled. She has already directed an internal review of all third-party invoices to the TPS Talent Management office for the last four years.

On Wednesday, TPS revealed the recent resignation of Devin Fletcher, its head of personnel.

In response to the Tulsa World’s question about whether she had asked for Fletcher’s resignation, Gist said she contacted him on Sunday, June 26, to notify him that he was being suspended and that she would be seeking his termination. He responded by resigning.

Fletcher’s submitted resignation, which has not yet been approved by the school board, was the topic of a Thursday evening executive session, as well as the vendor company at the center of the inquiry — Atlanta-based Snicklebox LLC — which contracted with TPS to “update and refine” the personnel office’s practices in order to better recruit and retain teachers.

A review of documents from previous school board meetings shows that the board approved consultant contracts with the company as recently as June 6, with approval for the $150,000 contract for the upcoming 2022-23 school year contingent upon grant funding.

The district had a $300,000 contract with Snicklebox for the 2021-22 school year and a $200,000 contract for the 2020-21 school year.

Stitt, who is running for reelection, also used the occasion to slam the state’s largest school district for COVID-related school closures in previous years and to share his concern that the district might be teaching critical race theory.

Stitt is seeking a compliance audit into a reported recent violation of a new state law limiting public school instruction on race, gender and history.

“As one of the largest districts in the state, TPS received over $200 million in COVID federal relief funds. TPS also stayed closed the longest — over 300 consecutive days,” Stitt said. “Board members, parents, students and teachers deserve to know how that money was spent. …”

“I firmly believe that not one cent of taxpayer money should be used to define and divide young Oklahomans by their race or sex. Let’s teach students, not indoctrinate them,” Stitt said.

Two weeks ago, the Oklahoma State Department of Education informed the State Board of Education that a professional development session on implicit bias provided to Tulsa Public Schools employees was found to be in violation of House Bill 1775, a new state law meant to limit instruction on race, gender and history.

HB 1775 does not include the phrase “critical race theory.” However, many have construed its provisions as a ban on the concept, which argues that many key pillars of American society, including the judicial system and economy, have been shaped in ways to benefit white people at the expense of minorities.

Under the administrative rules approved by the State Board of Education, the violation means that when the district’s accreditation comes up for review in July, its status must be downgraded to “accreditation with deficiency.”

The second of five accreditation categories available to Oklahoma public education, “accreditation with deficiency” means a district or school does not meet at least one state standard, but that does not detract from its overall educational quality.