OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – While Superintendent Ryan Walters still hasn’t officially sent in a resignation letter, he also still hasn’t approved a budget request due on October 1.
Oklahoma remains ranked compared with the rest of the nation at 50th in education, according to WalletHub.
Walters announced that he is stepping down from the role of superintendent on a late Wednesday night Fox News broadcast, but didn’t mention it during the board meeting the following day.
He is said to start his first day with a group fighting teachers’ unions on October 1.
His time in office has been filled with investigations, scandals, mishandling of money, ethics complaints, and more.
“So this fight is going national and we will get our schools back on track,” said Supt. Walters Wednesday.
During Thursday’s board meeting, board members felt that they weren’t given enough days to look over next year’s budget request of nearly $4.1 billion.
“That’s four billion dollars, and that’s the first time we looked at anything like that, so we wanted to be careful,” said board member Michael Tinney Thursday.
Tinney said they got bits and pieces of the budget request throughout the week, but didn’t get a chance to discuss it until Thursday.
It’s due in a few days.
“I would spend more time on our home budget, which is puny compared to this, and we’re being asked to vote on it now,” said Tinney.
“I’m not aware of any board or superintendent in the past missing that very important deadline,” said Tim Gilpin.
Gilpin served on the state school board for six years and said they usually got the budget request and details surrounding it months ahead of time. He also said that they usually discussed it throughout the year at the board meetings.
“So, a day or two notice is not enough time in anyone’s world for a board member to review all of that information, digest it, and then have an opinion to vote on it,” said Gilpin.
“They’ve got to present a budget to the legislature by October first,” said Senate Education Chair Adam Pugh.
Senator Pugh said that time is ticking, and he knows that within the department, there is a form of chaos brewing.
“There has to be an urgency here. As the Senate education chair, I have to work with the interim, but that may take a little time because I still don’t know the governor’s timeline,” said Senator Pugh.
That’s the thing, Governor Stitt’s office said that as of Friday, there is still no official resignation letter from Supt. Walters. There can’t be an interim until they officially know that Walters resigned.
“These are deadlines built into the law as to when they’re supposed to be informed. And I’m sorry to say that under Superintendent Walters, those deadlines have often been missed,” said Gilpin.
Thursday’s meeting had three board members voting to put off a vote on the budget request until they get more information.
Several of the board members said that other boards usually discuss how much was spent in the most recent year with appropriations.
“I would feel more comfortable if I knew that before we decided what this budget request should be,” said board member Chris Van Denhende.
While Supt. Walters and longtime board member Ryan Archer voted no to getting any more information before approving the budget request; the three members voted yes. One of the very few times, if the first time, that Walters was outvoted.
