Mister Tinney. Here. Miss LePak. Mister Deathridge. Here. Mister Archer. Here. Miss Carson. Here. Superintendent Walters. Here. Okay. So, we do have a quorum. Um miss London was the agenda posted in accordance with the Open Meeting s Act? Yes, it was. Okay, thank you very much. Um guys, I'm going to move on to item number two. If you would join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one
nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now, the Oklahoma Flex League, I salute the flag of the state of Oklahoma. It's symbols of peace unite all people. And then I'm going to say a prayer before we get started. Dear god, I pray that every Oklahoma child is provided an education that gives every opportunity in life that they desire. I pray that every parent is involved and treated as the one who knows best for their child as god intended. I pray that every teacher
is provided the wisdom and the resources to truly impact a child's life for the better. Amen. Thank you board members for being here today. I'm going to go ahead and start with some remarks on some updates. Um I want to start with you're going to begin to see some highlighting from the agency, some of the summer school programs over the next few weeks. Uh we've been working specifically with Tulsa and Oklahoma City but we'll be moving around the state to highlight some of the best practices going on. One of the things that we've really tried to emphasize is finding students that
have fallen behind, help them catch up over the summer but also try to do at and using your best teachers. Pay your best teachers. Utilize them. Um there's always times where you go outside. You know you get vendors. You get other organizations. But we've really try to emphasize. Let's find the best teachers in the state. Let's connect them with the learners that need it the most. Let's utilize that time. And we've had some districts do a great job with that. So we're going to be highlighting that. We're really going to be showcasing that a lot over the summer. It's literacy but it's also math. It's another one that we've really focusing on over the summer. So we're very excited about that. So
you're going to begin to see that. Um also we've had several conversation here about teacher recruitment numbers. Uh we're working on a report on that. Uh I think that we need to be able to evaluate the programs we've we've had and to be able to evaluate the successes. We need to be able to make decisions on what those programs can look like in the future. Um so, we are getting back those numbers obviously. This is a heavy hiring month for districts. Um so, we are getting to some of that information back. So, I I do prepare to have a report for you guys where you can kind of look through that. Kinda see and you know, it's it's not just
the whole numbers, where they going, right? Where they going? What fields? And I think that gives us a really good comprehensive view of what's working there. Uh I also am I'm pleased to announce you know, our the lawsuit on the history standards was dismissed. We're very excited to be able to move forward with those things. Uh again, I I'm so excited. These are the most pro America standards in the country. Um they're fact based. These are the largest history standards of states ever seen. So, you're going to see teachers dive into that. Uh you know,
left-wing activists are not very happy. They can't indoctrinate kids anymore. So, that's too bad for them. But you know what? It's very exciting for Oklahoma parents. It's very exciting for our kids. It's frankly very exciting for us as a state and for the country. Along those lines, I was very pleased to be in the White House two weeks ago to showcase their new founders room to emphasize American history and American exceptionalism. There they highlighted our standards and what we're doing here in the state of Oklahoma. To emphasize American history. So gotta talk with
Secretary Linda McMahon for a while about that. The president's team. You're going to see them roll out a lot of initiatives that highlight the work we're doing here in Oklahoma over the upcoming weeks. We're very excited about that. Um on a more kind of direct note on some issues that we've seen throughout the country. We did put out a memo this week to emphasize as we've seen antisemitism run rampant on college campuses. We've seen instances in the media of just some nasty things being said. About Israel and the Jewish state as you all know. We have
very comprehensive world history standards. In there, it is very specific on the way that you're going to teach these things. It's going to be about fat you're not going to go into a classroom and promote violence towards Jewish people, violence towards the Israeli country, saying things like Israel shouldn't exist. We're not going to tolerate that. So, we put out a memo to emphasize, look at the standards, there's a reason why we pass standards which is to ensure that parents know how their kids are taught, to make sure to get proper guidelines, and to make sure those guidelines are based in facts, so
that our teachers can feel very confident that when we walk in the classroom, when we teach these things, these have vetted. They're put together. I can work within these guidelines. So, we're very excited about that but we also want to make sure that that's clear as we're beginning to see a lot of problems in that area across the country. Uh that that's all I have for my opening comments. I want to go ahead and move into action item four four which is an action item which is a discussion and possible action on the amended minutes of the February 27th Regular
Board of Education Meeting. Um entertain any discussion, any motion, on that item. In regard to that, we have had discussions before on these minutes and have kept tabling them Uh I think probably I'm speaking on behalf at least some others because I know we've discussed this two or three times in these meetings that of and I know what has happened in the court and with the legislature with the standards. Uh on behalf of some members of the board, I believe that we still do not think the process was
properly followed in the board and I'm not going to rehash that because we've already talked about it. Uh I believe I would make a motion that we not approve the minutes. However, I've talked to mister Cutmas. He says we can do em like we did the January minutes and just vote on not to approve them but we can file em if that is correct. So, I would make that motion that now so we don't approve em but we file em. In that way, they're off our plate. And look my my view on
that for the board, you know, to me, whatever we've gotta do to get him in the record, so we're we're able to move forward and you know, kind of put that at rest. I I have no problem with that if that's if that's what the board would choose to do. I I'll second that motion pending mister Cutmas' confirmation that that gets the Department of Education and the Board on Solid Footing Legally. Yes, as discussed in the last meeting, there's not even a requirement to approve or not approve I think your
motion being made to place them into the minutes as a representation of what happened at the meeting needs to be done based on the Open Records Meeting Act. I believe that's what you're seeking a motion to do. Not saying you approve or disapprove but stand on your statements that you made at multiple meetings in regard to those minutes. Yeah. The the motion would just be the minutes be filed without being approved. That is your second stand? Yes. Okay. So, we have a motion a second. Do we have any further discussion? Miss
London, you mind calling roll for us? Mister Van Dehan? Yes. Mister Tinney? Yes. Mister Deathridge? Yes. Mister Archer? Yes. Miss Carson? Yes. Superintendent Walters? Yes. Motion passes. Superintendent Walters. Just for a moment. Miss London, do you have an extra copy of the agenda today? It is not in my. as we are lacking some copies. Grand upstairs as well because Sarah Yeah, still hers on the
front there. Okay. You got one? Yeah, I'm I'm good. Thank you, mister Watts. Superintendent Walters, thank you Um the next item we have is a discussion of possible action on the minutes of the May 21st Regular State Board of Education Meeting. So any discussion or motions on that item? I make a motion we approve. I'll second that motion We have a motion a second. Any further discussion? Misleading you my calling role for sir. Mister Vander Hendy? Yes.
Mister Tenney? Yes. Mister Deathridge? Yes. Mister Archer? Yes. Miss Carson? Yes. Superintendent Walters? Yes. Motion passes. Now, I want to turn to the consent docket. I do want to make sure as we go through the consent docket and accreditation standards. There's several items we're going to vote on today that are are very similar and we are asking for some waivers here on some App occasions and so I just want to be
kind of very clear on the board's ability to do this but also the explanation. Yes, sir. Josh Gibson. Go ahead. I was going to wait to you. Oh, oh yeah, yeah. Wait a minute. Um Superintendent Walters, I believe in prior conversations under our tab here on the State Board of Education page. I don't have a number but it is the list here of the individuals requesting this. Yes, sir. And the number out to the left, excuse me, to the right of their name is the amount of years that they have requested that. Is that, is that still the case?
That is correct. Yes, sir. So, my question would be my understanding is there is not a law in place that says sets a defined term limit so to speak or at time a sunset on this time. Is it typical to see? I think I saw one in here that has 7 years. Uh and that kind of stuck out in my head and I'm concerned. What what are we doing to assist or motivate these people to go ahead and I I appreciate their willingness to serve and teach. Uh
that's not that's not the question. I'm wondering if they're willing to be in the classroom for seven years under an emergency certificate. What do we need to do to get them into a truly and and this may not be the place to ask this question? No. I apologize. But I I'm just trying to understand what what can we do it to encourage them to move from that emergency certificate into a a full flown certificate. Sure. So, that's a great question. Uh I agree with you when you look at something like that. It makes you wonder, you know, well, why can't we just get you get you the
degree, right? Um so, certain districts do this differently. We have some districts that don't provide the same opportunities pay wise for folks with an emergency cert. So, they use that as kind of a motivational leverage. Uh some don't. So, that's kind of depends on the district. What we try to do is we try to encourage the emergency cert folks. Again, we can't require em to but to say, here is the quick path to get you from point A to point B and here is a college, a university that that will utilize the credits you already have. Here's the window, I will say,
some of the universities, I know UCO, I know Oklahoma Christian, just two very close, very local here to try to do that, to say, we're trying to get you this degree quickly. Um now, I will say sometimes and again, especially if there's anybody in particular, happy to dig into it for you guys further. There are some teachers that emergency cert for math. Then, if you later, the emergency search for science and so, the only problem with those individuals in helping them is, well, what do you want you to get your degree in? Now, again, if it's elementary, that doesn't matter as
much but a lot of times, we're seeing high schools, especially smaller districts. We can't find a physics teacher this year and for lack of a better tournament, a baseball tournament, kind of a utility player that goes, well, I'll jump, hey, you you guys brought me here on an emergency cert. I'll, I'll be the, I'll, I'll go do that one for you because you can't find anybody. So, there are occasions where you see somebody that's trying to help out local district by jumping and again, I I can't speak to the end of the you know, specific individual but but what I would tell you is we try to encourage. Number one, let's finish the programs. That's where we
actively send teachers. Every teacher an Email to go just so you're aware, reminder, here's the pathways, here's what we offer, a lot of the colleges offer, major discounts, on finishing that and here's we do boot camps and things like that over the summer right before school to try to help prepare them but you know, those are kind of the incentives. The legislature, I will and it's an a conversation happy for us to all engage on. They always go back and forth on this. Do we, do we just incentivize you to be this type of certified teacher or do we, you know, try to treat all teachers the
same once they enter into the profession that that's always kind of an ongoing dialogue there but they tend to to to lean on giving it back to the districts for their decision. Thank you, superintendent. No. Sam, I appreciate that explanation. Clearly, we have a shortage of teachers. So, we've gotta do what we can do. Uh I'm anxious to hear the results of our recruitment strategies because that in the end would fix this issue. Um so, as we have that discussion in a future meeting,
can we learn a little bit more about the gaps of our emergen certified. As we go through this list, they all have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in some subject area but I'm not sure what it takes to get them certified from that point. So, some of it may be, you know, six hours of courses at for example, you mentioned UCO. Some of it may be it's 12 hours. So, I just like
to understand those gaps between this list and a certified teacher. Um because clearly we all need to work to fill these with fully certified teachers so that and I think mister Dethridge's question is more and how do we bridge that gap so I as we have that discussion in the future I'd appreciate. Absolutely. More on that. Superintendent Walters if I may. Um you know I was excited this week. Um I I I'm not an overly huge fan
of Facebook in general but I did see Panhandle State University actually set put out a post that said, you know, if you come to they will basically, the way I read the article was that there was a grant that for they would pay for the school if you would return to that Panhandle area for two years and they would pay for your school. Is there other universities doing that type of thing that I mean, I I I see this in I I think of this individual that I see here and the one that has 6 years. If they just need to go to, they're
already serving in these communities. If we have a university that's doing that, I mean, it looks like to me it's paid for. Right. So, I I guess I'm just asking questions and I appreciate your your answers today. I just trying to figure out how to fix it. Sure. And I think that's great for, like I said, when we do kind of the teacher recruitment report, kind of walking through and one of the things that we do is we have Teach OK. com where we put together website for teachers to go, this is your your splash. Honestly, I probably get to walk through. So, even a walk through
that of, it's a compiling of every scholarship type offer for teachers, every legislative type for teachers. Um everything we offer for teachers and so it's a a hub that we then push out to all the teachers in the state. All the people we're trying to recruit. So we highlighted into the Dallas market, the Little Rock market. Um but but walking through that I think that that would be helpful too because again, I agree with you completely. It's gotta be a holistic strategy and and to the point you're made today, you know, if you got people this close to the finish line, it may not be as big of a
lift to get them from point A to point B while you're continuing to grow out entire pipeline. So, we have mentioned in the past if it does the pipeline, we are seeing encouraging numbers from our Colleges of Education this year. It's the first time in years we've seen a turnaround there where it's actually gone up. Um so, that's but that's more of the future, right? That's more of higher out. So, can we do something like this to really target some of these individuals? I think that's a great point. Yeah, thank you. Quick question here. Uh on the back page of this, it talks about total educators requesting emergency. 1681. Uh what
is the year? Is is it the fiscal from July 1 to July 1 that that's talking about or a calendar year. It's at the back after all the list of names. So, usually, I'm trying to find where we go. Usually, we do. Yeah, it's. I just wondered what the year was because it's it is like a school year which I think ends June June 30 in a couple of days. Does that mean that was everybody that did it last year or is that a calendar year? How how does that not? Yes, sir. Usually and and I can double check on
this but usually we do the the school year, the academic year because that just for us is a better number. So, probably roll over next month and. Sure. Start over. Yeah, sure. That's all I need. Thank you. And and so you know on on this question in particular and just reminder, consent docket, I try to put it all on there so we can vote at once but if there's anything that needs to be pulled off and if you guys ever need that, obviously, ask me but also right now, if there's an item we want to pull off of it, the first one is the request to approval of exemptions to these certificates
here, these provisionals. Um so, There it goes. Sorry. Not holding that off. There you go. There we go. Um I would like to separate the two because I do have a couple of questions regarding bee and I don't know if we have to separate them to get my questions answered or can I just ask those questions in the. No, I was going to go. We can do B separately, right? Yeah. I was, I'm sorry. I was going to do B separately. I just meant for item A. That's a lot. So, we can point thing out of there but yes, absolutely. We'll do B separately. Yes, ma'am. I'd make a motion that we approved the emergency certified exemptions.
I'll second that. Exception, sorry. Okay. Um we have a motion and a second. Miss London, you mind calling roll for us? Mister Vandehan? Yes. Mister Tenney? Yes. Mister Deathridge? Yes. Mister Archer? Yes. Miss Carson? Yes. Superintendent Walters? Yes. Motion passes. So now, happy to have a discussion there on that. Um second item, I do have the request in here. Remember, so basically, to give a 10, 000-foot
view, the legislature gives funds for textbooks that is a line item. That is what the money is to be used for. We can provide a waiver flexibility for districts, let's say, we don't need to use it on textbooks. We would prefer to use it here. You you're looking at a form that we have them fill out where they give us the explanation that you have. Um so, they are different and so I also want to point that out of you know, they're on a consent docket but by no
means, do I believe this is going to be, they're all approved or not. I recommend they be approved but that doesn't mean we you can approve one, not not the other, what not. They are different masks. The first district, Grady County, the district is friend. Uh they are requesting textbook funds to use the Alpha Plus curriculum for their all their students there in those schools. Um Alpha Plus has not been an approved textbook but it is curriculum that's widely used around the state. So, what they're saying is we've got the textbooks. We would prefer to use the money here. Um
by the way, Ernie, are either these three districts here? I wasn't. I don't think so. Okay, I didn't. I I thought they just said the same. The second one is I can stop, go back, or just kind of run you through all of em. The second one is Bartlesville and Washington County. They're wanting to use these funds to retain teachers and bring in new teachers. I will tell you, I've been to Bartlesville within the last year. We went and visit the district. They are very big on producing their own curriculum. So, I would imagine that they're saying, we would use this money to retain these teachers. We've produced our own curriculum. We don't need to go buy a bunch of textbooks this year and then, Olive
District in Creek County, they're another district asking to use the funds on plus So, two of em with similar asks and then one of them Bartlesville is a little unique I wasn't familiar with Alpha Plus. I think it's fairly new and so, I did did some research into it Um and so, it sounds like a viable program that's actually pinpointing gaps in education which is a great thing. Um my concern is it only goes to eighth grade. So, what are those schools doing past eighth
grade? So, that's great question and and I'm going to kind of speak on behalf of the textbook committee. I don't think there was a problem with Alpha Plus in the sense of it's not good curriculum. It's not beneficial. It was does it cover every standard to a certain level? So, that's where I think you see districts that say, is this the end all be all for what? I mean, I'm kind of speaking on their behalf without asking to but I think the request here is going to be more along the lines of we have other things but we have money leftover we
would like to use it for this and that's been our recommendation is look, this is great to be supplemental. That's what the textbook community came back with but if this is all that you're doing, we think there's some gaps. Okay, that was going to be my question is were they asking for all of their funds to be allocated to this? Well, they're asking for flexibility with their funds. Okay. So, you know, they don't tell us X amount here, X amount there, what they're going to do is is ask for the flexibility and then go out and see how much it's going to cost. Okay. Um is usually the way that
that would work. Get an estimate and. And then my question, oh, sorry. My question on Bartlesville is how do we ensure that those funds are used for what they say they're going to be used. I talked for 30 years. I know there's some misuse of funds. Um that is a very valid point. Uh I will say we require districts to code how they spend their funds. Um we try to stay very on top of how they cope. That's where when accreditation comes up
which we're working on now. That will be something I will be flagging for you. Months in advance because that's a big report and it's where we go through all of the expenditures. We dive in, are the red flags, are there issues before we fully accredit or we accredit with deficiencies, things like that. Um so, one beneficial thing that I will say to when a district does this, I mean, they are documenting to us. These are the funds and we're going to use them here. So, when they're reporting, I will say it will be very clear for us. Here's the textbook funds. Here's how they're coded. Where they spent here. So, I I
will say, you know, being very upfront with we're not trying to move this around. We're asking for your permission and here's the exact funds that would be used here. So, I will say in this instance, I do feel confident in in the fact that they are being very directive. This is the bucket. Here's where it would go. An NRO cast reporting is pretty easy to tell that that's what it would be. And they Bartlesville does indicate in their request that they actually have their textbook funds covered through bonds. Yes. So, okay. Uh
Miss Carson, I, it maybe, I don't know that that Alpha Plus, K3, I, it maybe that friend and Olive are just K through eight schools. I don't know that for sure. So that maybe the reason. Possibility. I do not know that off the top of my head, but you, that is possible. But it also does not cover all subjects. I think it only covers math, ELA. Correct. And I think there's one there. I can't remember. Yeah. Superintendent
Walters if I may. Is it the legislators intent for us to have the ability to reclassify the funds after they've already designated that as a line item expense? Great question. Um they've given us the ability to offer the waivers. So they they have given us that flexibility. Um I will also say they give us the ability to set the terms of how the textbook funds are used, what textbooks are approved. Um so again it is within our discretion of who
gets the approval and also if the board sees fit that we feel like this is an appropriate use of funds that's not outside of of anything that we would deem necessary that we could come in a way in on it. So, I will say they gave us ability to offer waivers. Um they gave us the ability to give that type of flexibility you know, and now frankly, if we saw this a lot, I would say I think it would be good for us to go back to the legislature and go just flagging for you I know you gave this money here but we're getting hundreds of requests
to use it somewhere else. We really don't to, you know, you see it. I mean, I don't remember how many times we've brought this item before you. I think one other time here recently but we don't see it very often and usually the districts are very specific and again, you can see there's a type of curriculum. Um there that they want to utilize it for that frankly is it is Oklahoma to give them, you know, kind of their credit here at their Oklahoma-based company. They have been around the state for at least over a decade. So, people know them people work with them. So, I will say, I am very familiar with that
organization and again, they're they they've operated within the state for a while and so there are districts that go, hey, that's this is a product we want to use. Superintendent, I think you answered my question but so we see three, your memory as we may have seen another one but this is something that would be happening right now. We wouldn't expect to see this throughout the year. So, it is a handful of schools across the state. This would be, you know, on obviously next month would be the two months that you're really going to see this. Um so, so you know, we can
reevaluate. You know, you know, we're saying all this today. If we get, you know, 80 requests by next month. That would be a little different story. Um I don't anticipate that but I do think it gives us the ability of if we start seeing something like that. You know, frankly, that is the budget process with the legislature and you know, when we make an ask of them, it is, I know you've given this and we've done this before. I know you've given this in the past. I did that with several line items this year. Districts tell me, they just prefer it be over here in this bucket and so I just try to be very frank with them of this is what I'm hearing from districts. This is why it can be better utilized. Textbook funds I
think would be similar if we have a ton of waivers next month. It may be time to go back legislature and say, just just flagging this for you. We're getting a lot of waivers. You know, there's some other options here but I also think that in their mind, there was 1 year, we did not do a textbook line item from the legislature and a lot of districts got really they heard from districts that said, we don't buy textbooks every year. We're doing online curriculum so they didn't do it. Then, they heard from a lot of districts that said, literally, we have textbook cycles based on this funding stream. So, then, the legislature came back the next year and funded. Just to give you
a little bit of back story there. So, that's kind of where we're at when it to that being a direct line item I'll make emotionally approved the waivers on fiveB. One second. And I would just like to say for the record that all of these are noted as their local school board has made the approval for those exceptions. So, that gives me comfort that there is local control involved in this. Uh I appreciate
that point. I think that's an important one. Is is the district has made the decision to their local government structure that this is what they want. So, again, they're being very upfront with how they're spending the money, how they want to spend the money, and why. So, that is a great point. Okay. Miss London, I believe we have a motion a second. Do you mind calling roll for us? Mister Vanderhand. Yes. Mister Tenney. Yes. Mister Deathridge? Yes. Mister Archer? Yes. Miss Carson? Yes. Superintendent Walters? Yes. Um motion passes. Now, this is one I I do
want to be very specific on and and I've I've mentioned this in the past. We're going to talk about abbreviated school days here in a second. Um this first item is not asking for an abbreviated school day. Someone six A. What they're for is an abbreviated school day for their alternative education plan. Now, we are going to come to you in a minute with some folks that want their entire calendar shortened but but these folks are not. They're asking for, can their alternative ed program be less than 165 days I I believe they're going to
it's on under six A in your in your binder. Um again, you kind of see they use different programs. You have one that uses ingenuity. We've got a lot of districts that use that where the kids come in and they work at their own pace. When they hit certain marks, they move on. When they don't, they move forward. So, the kids kind of work at their own pace. Uh we have another district, New Castle that by the way, I've seen them in action with this program. Yeah. They do it very differently because they're utilizing teachers from their district and other districts. So, it's a different type of schedule
and then, Piedmont, their instructional day, again, if you're in their alternative schools, four days a week instead of their average five-day a week. So, these are just for alternative ed programs. Um you know, my position has been on alternative top on alternative ed programs is to try to give them some more flexibility as long as we feel like it's within the bounds of what's necessary, what's proper, because again, they are, they are alternative programs, usually meant for students that may have difficulty attending school five
days a week, or or, or struggle in a different sense. So, I, I ten air on the side of giving them flexibilities, and less again, we see that it's outside the bounds. I didn't see an issue with these. Again, I'm very familiar with the ingenuity program. I know, districts that use that I understand. It's kind of your own pace type deal and the other two, to me, made sense with what I knew about the program. So, that that was our recommendation on those two and again, there is some specifics here and if you want to even see the schedule, Trimmer, somebody gave us the schedule that was, you can even
see their class schedule. I can't remember Western Heights, oh wait, That's for the, never mind. That's for the D rate. Sorry, that is for B. But yeah, for the first three, or for the first one, two, three, four, five. You have Western Heights is in this one as well. They're asking for the four day, I believe and hold on, there's one other one. Pawnee, Yes. So, yes and the reason why they're included here is because they
technically would not be in that district for the hundred sixty-five, more than four-day agreement. So, they are going to have to ask for a shortened calendar day but If I remember correctly, let me kind of pull this part up. Yeah. I've got it right here. They show you how they're assessed. They say they're not currently receiving any funding for an alternative ed program Um which Okay.
Sizzle next to the or the last page of the item that Pawnee doesn't have any currently enrolled. So, I guess they're just trying to combine with somebody else if they need to. You think what? They don't want to? Yeah. Okay. Right. Okay. Okay. Yeah, my understanding of this is the best is there's noone enrolled in it but if you look on A, they they are saying, look, if we do this and we do enroll students in it and we kept it below ten Mm hmm. It
provides us the opportunity to not kind of stand up our own. We can do this, do this coop. So, that does, okay, that does make sense why they don't have funding for it. There's no, there's nobody currently in it right now. That seems more precautionary there. And I don't have a problem with that. Like I said, some districts have a more formal co-op agreement. But we're talking about again, I I think they're ensuring, if there are a few kids that enroll, they can do this without standing it up on their own. Superintendent two, my previous points on so Western Heights and
Pawnee. I see a document with local school board approval. Uh on the first three New Castle, Hilton, and Piedmont. I just see your memo with no other other details. So, if I missed something, Um do you know? We can let let's double check on that. I haven't seen that if there was an official. So the the backup for those first three was not online. Um it is available and we can provide that.
However, I have been told by accreditation here that if you all would prefer to wait and table that, that there's still be plenty of time but the backup is available and we have that available. But backup is what? All the process that they've already been through? Exactly. Are you aware about a board approval? Was there a board vote? I mean, these that you're aware of? To my knowledge, I don't have that knowledge as far as whether or not there was a board vote but I do know that we have it. It just didn't make up into the online backup
that you all receive but again, if that is an issue, we can absolutely table it and then go and just take care of it. And frankly, that's something to, as you flagged that, we can make sure that anybody asking for a waiver has documented and we make sure in the future. Yeah. Aboard. When there's a board vote, when there's not because a lot of these, they don't have to have a board vote but of course, helpful for us to know Right. A local board approved this already. Yeah. My my and my only issue there is I don't want a local school to use the State
Department as their reason for some action until their board well the state department told me. Sure. So I I would request then that we pinned one, two, and three. Okay. Till we get details and then vote on four and five. And so Did you hear the did you hear the motion there? Okay. And we need to change. I want to make sure that we document for the board before any waivers are approved. We need to have documentation of whether they went to their board for approval or
not. Um Okay. I think that'd be good moving forward. So the motion was to approve four and five, tabled one to 3, bring back the documentation to the next board meeting of if there was any kind of board action on those three. Yes. I'll second that. And frankly, I get, I get the point too of don't don't switch the order up. Go there first. Come to us. Don't come to us and then try to go to your board and go, well, they already proved it so. Right. I got it. That. At the end of the
day, I don't know how common that actually is but never say never, right? I mean, I said on the local board and you know, these types of things were discussed at length before they were ever ran farther up the flagpole. Right. But. Well, that that would be good practice. I just want to make sure that. Yeah. What's happening? At the end of the day, the superintendent works for the local board. So, yeah. You know, they're going around that chain of command asking for a favor there. Lobble did not have a job. Sure. Okay, I know there was a motion and there was a
second. Mister Archer, right? Wasn't there? Okay. Yes. Uh any further discussion? Hey, miss Lonnie, you might call and roll for us. Mister Van Hand? Yes. Mister Tenney. Yes. Mister Deathridge. Yes. Mister Archer. Yes. Miss Carson. Yes. Superintendent Walters. Yes. Motion passes. Uh so the next item that these are the library media certification waivers. Uh these are the ones that I I do warn you guys about that we do get a lot of these. Um Happy to go in and wear
that background with you all on these we do not have very many folks with this degree Um so, we do get a lot of waivers asked every year. This is kind of, again, I think I described it once as transitioning. The librarian to the librarian that is dealing with all the medias. Um it's great. It's great degree. Seems like a great program for everything I've seen about it. We are still on a transition stage. We we've tried to do a lot of trainings here, things like that but that certification, that degree is not widely
old. Uh most districts, you know, if you talk to em, we'll we'll tell you, you know, about how hard it is to find somebody with that. Um so that that's kind of remain the same. So, that's what I would say there and and again, I I don't I I don't have an issue especially when you look at most of these are smaller districts. I mean, there's, you know, Yukon's a bigger district but other than that, Mustang, a lot of smaller districts. I've I always usually recommend approving these for those local districts. I have a couple this is an
issue that's kind of dear to my heart because I have a very dear friend who is a library media specialist and I think sometimes they before the law was written where they or the standard where they couldn't be holds from the library to substitute or they couldn't be pulled to do test monitoring. Um I believe the filling was is that they were looked at as expendable and I think that's truly a disservice to what they do in those libraries. Um this is another issue that is a again we're at looking at
another necessary evil in our state. Um because of the some things that we have done in position we've put our self in. Um there are 12 of these schools and like you said, most of them are small rural areas. There are four school districts that appear to be doing this in the right way. Um one would be Mustang where they're going to be using a person within their building that it already has media certification and they're going to be using her in there and Cleora is actually has a master degree teacher
who's going to serve half-time librarian and half-time counselor. Um the Oklahoma School for the Deaf they have a requirement that there all of their educators, well, actually, everyone in the building must be able to sign and so, they are, that's hard, you'd look at a media degree being hard, and then you get somebody that, you know, has to be able to sign as well. Um, and so, they have a person who has been in there, who signs, and is actually going to be getting her media library science degree. And then we have Yukon and
they're all they're doing is going from two certified sideline media specialist to one and so I don't have a problem with those for individual school district. My concern is this was an issue that needed more time for me to look at, to research, to possibly contact these schools. Um contact my friend who's on the media the media specialist board for the state. Um and because of time restraints I wasn't able to do that. Um and so I don't
a problem if we can vote on individual schools granting them and the rest of them may be tabling and here's kind of the reason for that and I'm going to look back at my notes because it's lengthy. Um when I agreed to sit down with the governor and talk about this appointment, I told him three things about myself. Number one was I was always going to speak my mind. Number two is that every question or decision that I had to make on this board as it did when I was a classroom teacher would be run through the question, is it good for kids? And
number three was I would not vote on any issue that I did not feel I had been able to fully read, research, or discuss with the decision, the people that it would affect in my decision. And so based on those three things, what I'm requesting of Superintendent Walters is that we are able to get the agenda and the addendums that go along with it. A minimum of 72 hours prior to this meeting. Um, to give us time to read,
to research, to visit with people, it involves as you are aware, we were sent the agenda last night at 615 PM, which is 15 minutes prior to the twenty-four-hour notice. Um it's usually several several documents to go through and like I said, I I promised I would never vote yes on any or no on anything that I hadn't had time to research and instead of putting it aside last night, I vowed to that except for being able to these people obviously and I was up till
four AM going over every little detail of this agenda and the addendums that were added to it and so my that is my request. Um each member of this board is here to serve the will of the people and since we're not able to research items efficiently. Um I don't believe we're actually able to do that because we're not able to prepare properly for those things. Um I have like I said I have four pages of notes on today's agenda. Um I was up
before I am preparing the best that I could but I also feel stuck in the middle here. I feel stuck in the fact that I know that if I don't vote yes to some of these issues, it's going to hurt some schools and it's going to hurt some rural schools and I don't want to do that. Um I hate the fact that we're in this position. I hate the fact that I, when you have a child born here in Oklahoma and you want to send them to public school, that it should be equivalent around the state no matter where you go and and so, I that's my request is that those
agenda items be sent to us 72 hours in advance to the meeting so that we can be prepared. I would agree with that to a point. I I think I got mine about twenty-four hours. Ahead of time and you know, part of that sleep time, some of us here have full-time jobs. Uh I understand you guys have a big job in preparing this. I understand and these are well organized. I compliment you for that. I know things probably I don't
know when they come in during the month. Maybe they get in two days before the meeting. I don't know. So, I I realize it's maybe a hard **** but I would just ask that if even if you had to send 90% of it to do it three or four days ahead of time would be helpful for us because we want to do the best we can for the kids and to be we're not going to know everything about everything anyway but we're going to be as well informed as we can. I I would agree with both comments. Uh I think in order for us to do what we
feel is a responsible job, we need a little more time Uh so, specific to miss Carson's request, I would unless there is a reason we can't penned all of action B to next meeting. I would motion that we penned B and vote on all of it and possibly more that may come in at the next meeting. So, that would be. Okay. So, the motion is to table,
table all of six B. And take up all twelve of these plus any that may come in prior to the next meeting unless they're extenuating circumstances that would cause severe harm to any of these schools or the kids. Well, there's an example. Um the superintendent from Stonewall who they are asking for their calendar year to be less than 165 days and his letter which was
written in April He closes his letter with please reach out if you have any questions and need additional information which most of them do. At 615 last night, I can't do that. You know, if I had further questions, I can't reach out to him to him after 6 15 PM. Sure. So, happy to entertain the motion. I will make a comment. So, this this agency will make recommendations of you all. We will work with districts and put those forward. Uh we also have our own
timelines when we get information. Um so, we will do, we will look at that and make the determination on when to send it on to you all. Um I also do understand in sending you partial information so you can read it beforehand. Um I will say we've dealt with issues in the past of me being accused of changing things to manipulate individuals by sending parts along the way. So, I do want to be crystal clear. I'm happy to explore. Guys, I I get it. You know, I'm happy to explore that. I'm happy to continue the conversation but I do
believe there's gotta be the understanding here is if I'm giving you something, I'm on the phone right up until the minute this board meeting starts with. Everybody in here, calling, texting, Emailing, saying, hold on. We want, you know, we gotta so, I get it. We operate in a timeline. I also try to make sure that when I bring it to you, I mean, I can bring and then I get three more phone calls from a district and then it just changed. So, we need to I I would be happy to explore it. I think we just need to be very open in the communication of this is kind of what we're dealing with on our side to make
sure what you guys get is a finished product of everything that we've got. They know the deadlines too. So, again, we get things thrown our way right up in the last minute but again, I'm happy to explore that conversation. I'm happy to explore giving partial, giving documentation with the understanding that we might not have an official recommendation at that point because you know, if I get another call. I need to go follow up with that as well. So, I I just think that's probably a good point for us to continue the dialogue and understanding there but I'm I'm happy to do that. Superintendent
Walters, I'm I'm going to go back to a conversation I think. Uh mister Vandehan had mentioned before if if there is changes in the agenda, I think they can be redlined or things like that that would help us identify those changes as we look through the packet that's before us that day. Um their red line and of course I realize this is the time consuming part. I've realized that. The online version is still scan them in but putting this packet together. I know it takes time but maybe that's an option of of being
able to show a red line if something changes that we could have. Easily recognize that. Sure. Something has been changed. Through the as you're evaluating options. And and I appreciate your comments and I feel like there needs to be some give and take and so we'll me personally, I will accept that and we will work the best we can to get the best decisions we can. I appreciate that. One more comment on the specific item
Can these positions not be filled with emergency certified teachers? Is there an emergency I know library media specialist is a totally separate certificate it. And so that's why they have to ask for this waiver. Can they not be filled with a certified emergency teacher? That's a great question. So they could but then they wouldn't meet some of the requirements that they have a library media specialist. So, the reason why that's a separate ask here is because they are required in state law to have this position
filled or attempted to be filled. That's where you see them going this route to say, they don't have it but we do have someone to fill this role. Again, going back to the Ocas coding, they need a show in their coating. We did pay for this position. So, that's why that's that's a separate because it is to point. It is a separate certificate. It is coded differently. That's why these districts are trying to show we are going to fill the position. We will spend the funds in this way and this is their documentate, well, part of their documentation of that. I guess some of the ones that bother me and I understand they are very rural areas
but lots of them are going to require their certified teachers to run the library during their planning period. They are going to ask them to check out books They're going to ask them to basically run the library on their planning period and I think we have to be very careful because we is the planning period important to an educator? Absolutely and so I think we have to make sure that we're honoring that time for them. Those
are the plans one. There's On this connected of I believe that's what we need more of. We need them helping kids navigate a career. We need them helping kids with mental health issues. We don't need them doing every kind of administrative service for all to say for an administrator. They need to be doing the role. That's why they're paid for. So, again, that was something we explored. We can look at that again. Um we can because I I do believe again, somebody wants to be a school counselor, they want to help kids in these ways. That's their background. That's what they're there to do. Um that's why it's a
separate certification. They're not a principal. They're not a vice principal. They're a school counselor. So, if we're going to use these titles and have certifications, we need to that role. That's my view. So, that was the role that we passed which was to say, I can't remember the percentage was, you know, this percent of their time has to be done in this way and by the way, school counselors love it. Like I said, media doesn't cover that part but that was a rule that was done because we took feedback from school counselors and said, yes, that role is important. That role should be doing these certain things so we'll protect the time. I'm happy to explore that with anything because
again, there's a reason why these certificates are named the way they are. The reason we have library media specialist and again, I hope I flipping about that earlier. It is important to transition from being Ayala books. I'm a reader of a physical book but there is a reason why someone who works in a school library should be able to help kids navigate the new world of of media, the new world of all. So, that that is wise. We should be doing that and so, if there's something we can do to protect that role, if there's something we can do to encourage more
folks to fill that role, if there's even an incentive that we could explore. I I I agree with that those are things we should be looking at. Those are things that we should be exploring because again, I I think that if we're going to have separate certifications, if we're going to say this is important and we're saying it's important every school has it. Well, let's make sure it's done with fidelity. So, I sorry for the long response but I I'm just saying I I do agree with you and I'm happy to explore that. May I ask a point of clarification? I don't know. Miss Carson or Superintendent, you may know the answer. In these little schools, do
we need a library specialist in each building or is it one for the district and one, you know, somebody or just for the whole district. How does that work? It's some of them. Some these. They are halftime at the high school and half time at element your small ones usually it it's it's based on the amount of of students enrolled and everything but so yes, sir. Most of the small ones, you're using the same person to cover. Is there a statue that requires one per, you know, physical library or is it one for one person can handle several libraries? It's based on numbers.
It's based on the the number of students enrolled in the school. Okay, thanks. I appreciate that. So, I really don't want to go down a rabbit hole but. Sure. Listening to this discussion, I did have a concern. Yup. Are some districts effectively doubling up on faculty and then getting funding to have two positions but effectively having one person perform two roles. Which. I think it, yes. To me, would seem to be a reason people might be
trying to do that is to to fund other operations. So, that's a great question. Um look, one of my biggest concerns has always been administrative cost. You know, I see a budget, I see taxpayers dollars going to education. I see us actively trying to recruit teachers but then I continue to see the numbers of administrative positions rise. I continue to look at the percentages based on the federal statistics which is we're continuing to spend more on administrative cost. So, I'm looking at all that that's a problem. I don't think taxpayers like that. I
think they go, hey, when we're investing in education, honestly, my mind goes to teacher, classrooms, supplies, that's where most people head go. So, here's here is the issue. Um with Ocast, they do show us how they spend the money. We can see where it was dedicated to. Now, is that position necessary? Um to your point, are we doubling up here in a way that why wouldn't we hire another teacher to go do that? Why are we having somebody wear multiple hats
and frankly, this is where depending on where if you want to look at somebody's district, you're going to have a superintendent, assistant superintendent, deputy superintendent, dean of students, does, you know, you might have all these positions where again, those are funds that I, you know, I I push pretty hard on that of do we really need all those? Can we not do four, five teachers in the classroom and and and or pay the teachers more and keep them in there. So, look it, it is a concern. They do have to code under that individual what their roles are and how they're being paid. So, I will say, we can pinpoint that
to see if someone's being paid for multiple roles but they do have to show that. So, it is frankly if we ever have that from a district, it is fairly easy to find but I mean, it is it's frankly kind of common place