OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – State School Superintendent Ryan Walters avoided questions at Thursday’s board meeting after his Wednesday announcement that he was stepping down.
“I’m excited to announce I’ll be stepping down as OK state superintendent,” said Supt. Walters during a late-night broadcast of Fox News on Wednesday.
Board members butted heads with Walters on what seems like could be his final board meeting.
“You guys can sue me; I don’t really care. You guys can run for state superintendent and go out and get hundreds of thousands of votes across the state,” Walters said at one point.
“If it really happens, then I hope that we get a new state superintendent who genuinely cares for the students and educators and who will be ethical and honest,” said board member Michael Tinney after the board meeting.
The meeting on Thursday seemed normal for the most part; it started, though, with a moment of silence for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed.
However, several items seemed to be missing from the agenda on Thursday, like legal items and teacher certifications.
Usually, the board will discuss and vote in closed session on matters relating to punishment or reinstatement to teacher certifications and their status in Oklahoma schools.
That hasn’t happened since the July meeting because Walters had canceled the last meeting.
This means many teachers are left in the loop on how to either get back in the class or if they shouldn’t be in the class. Board members brought up that issue on Wednesday, but Walters, for the most part, wasn’t bothered by their concerns.
“We’ve got emails from those people saying, hey, what’s going on. We’ve been waiting two months to get our lives back together. Possibly longer than that,” said Tinney.
“Well, it hasn’t been cleared by me to be presented to this board,” said Walters.
“Well, it’s the board’s decision and not the superintendent’s decision,” responded board member Chris Van Denhende.
“So, as long as I’m here, it will be my decision of what’s presented to the board, and that’s the way that we’re going to do it,” said Supt. Walters.
Walters didn’t once address the elephant in the room, his resignation announcement.
The closest the board and Walters came to talking about it was from Tinney near the end of the meeting.
“Superintendent, I’ve heard on the news, I just uh, with all things being said here, I do wish you and your family well,” said Tinney.
“Thanks. Do we have a motion to adjourn?” responded Walters.
Afterwards, Tinney and board member Becky Carsons spoke to the press on where education goes from here.
“I believe that the superintendent’s resignation opens the door for us to now make progress on this board and do what’s best for the children of this state. We haven’t been able to do that, so this resignation comes with hope that now we can move forward,” said Carson.
After the meeting finished, Walters left for his office. News 4 asked his press secretary, Madison Cercy, if he would do a presser afterwards to address the resignation or just take questions.
At first, she said yes, but after ten minutes or so, she came back out and told all the press to leave, that Walters wasn’t addressing questions.
From here, Governor Stitt stated Thursday that he is now tasked with finding the next superintendent to fill Walters’ role for the next year or so.
There still doesn’t seem to be an official resignation released yet, but the union group that Walters said he is headed to said that his first day with them is October 1.
