Oklahoma State Board of Education members, from left, Mike Tinney, Ryan Deatherage and Chris Van Denhende review their board packets before a meeting April 24 in Oklahoma City. Tinney, Deatherage, Van Denhende and board member Becky Carson unilaterally scheduled a state Board of Education meeting for Wednesday after state Superintendent Ryan Walters canceled their meeting this week. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — In a rare move, a majority of the Oklahoma State Board of Education has scheduled its own meeting without the consent of state Superintendent Ryan Walters, who board members say has refused to cooperate.
The decision comes a day after Walters abruptly canceled a meeting with the board that was meant to take place Thursday.
Four board members — Chris Van Denhende, Mike Tinney, Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson — invoked a state law that allows a majority of the seven-member board to call a meeting. They scheduled the meeting through the Secretary of State’s Office for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the state Capitol to hire a new attorney to represent the board, according to a letter sent on Thursday to Walters, which Oklahoma Voice obtained.
Oklahoma City attorney Bob Burke, who is representing the four board members, wrote the letter urging Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education to also post a notice of the Wednesday meeting.
If the Education Department doesn’t post a meeting notice by 9 a.m. Tuesday, Burke said he will ask the Oklahoma Supreme Court to force Walters to do so.
“They previously asked for a special meeting of the Board of Education for the purpose of retaining the services of an attorney approved by the Attorney General to represent the Board’s interest,” Burke wrote in his letter to Walters. “To date, you have refused to schedule such a special meeting. You are fully aware of the statutes that authorize a majority of the members of the Board to call a special meeting.
“It is the hope of my clients that you will join them in convening the special session so that this urgent matter of business can be considered.”
Walters has yet to respond to the letter, Burke told Oklahoma Voice. He said one of the board members could lead the meeting if Walters, the board’s chair, doesn’t attend.
Burke said he isn’t the attorney the board intends to hire. Rather, he is helping them schedule a meeting, he said.
An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday evening. The agency previously said it canceled the state board meeting this week because its staff and legal team are in flux.
The board’s previous attorney, Chad Kutmas, withdrew from his position in recent weeks after three board members asked the Attorney General’s Office to remove him. The attorney general has the authority to cancel a lawyer’s contract with a state board and did so with the state Board of Education last year.
Van Denhende, Deatherage and Carson complained Kutmas represented Walters’ interests more than theirs.
“He is often uncooperative, belittling, and argumentative with board members,” Carson wrote in an email to the Attorney General’s Office. “He does not represent the best interest of the board, which is what he is contracted to do. He has made it apparent in his actions, or lack of, that we as a board are not his priority.”
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