Tulsa school board president cites miscommunication in audit delay drama

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) —The president of the Tulsa school board says tension over the district's decision to delay the release of a high-profile audit boils down to miscommunication.

On Tuesday, State Auditor Cindy Byrd held a news conference set on releasing a forensic audit report for Tulsa Public Schools and answering questions from the media.

In a turn of events, Byrd said that could not happen and she could not answer any questions because attorneys acting on behalf of the school district's superintendent and the school board had invoked a state statute. The statute gives school districts the ability to deny public access to the audit findings for up to two weeks.

"In my 28 years of conducting government audits, including countless school districts, no one has ever invoked a statute ever," said Byrd.

The audit was requested by Governor Kevin Stitt in 2022. Stitt raised concerns in a letter to Byrd's office about the district's handling of vendor contracts, the district's handling of more than $200 million in COVID relief funds even while being closed longer than any other school district in the state, and allegations of conducting a training that could violate state law preventing schools from teaching critical race theory.

"The audit is complete and the findings are significant, but you're not allowed to see it," said Byrd.

Despite not taking questions, Byrd noted that Tulsa Public Schools administrators had created obstacles over the past few years that delayed the audit and accused the district of misleading investigators.

She made a request to members of the media to get answers for the public from the district.

"The Tulsa school board and the Tulsa superintendent have the power to let you see the audit report and its findings," said Byrd. "Right now, they have chosen not to. Why? I invite you, the press, to get the answer to that question."

Immediately following the news conference, News 4 made efforts to get ahold of Tulsa school board members. We heard back from three of them and interviewed board president Stacey Woolley.

Woolley said that the board had just received a briefing on the audit on Tuesday and that the school board and district administration were under the impression, from the beginning of the process, that they would have an opportunity to share feedback, provide additional information, and ask questions before the audit was publicly released.

She says it's important to note that the board hasn't seen the full report, and has only seen bullet points under the different areas that Byrd's office looked into.

"I am going to operate under best intentions and just go with the idea that, you know, she anticipated sharing it today," said Woolley. "We had a different idea of how it would work and because she called people in to be there for the press release where she would have disclosed that information, I'm sure she was disappointed that that's not how it happened. But I don't think that anybody intended anything to be negative or anything like that."

Woolley believes the disconnect in the situation boils down to a lack of communication about how the final results of the audit would be relayed to the public. She says she sees no issue with the audit being released, but in fairness, the district wants to make sure that the information that is released to the public for the very first time is factual.

"It's hard to revise something that's put out there inaccurately," said Woolley. "We just want to make sure that anything we have questions about are addressed and we want to make sure that the information is as accurate as possible."

News 4 pressed Woolley about the timeline behind the delay decision in the first place, and who was involved with making that call.

"I wouldn't say it was necessarily anyone's decision," said Woolley. "It was more that we elevated what we thought the process was to the team, who then, I assume, shared with our state auditor. So I don't think anybody tried to like, legally maneuver, making sure that something didn't happen. That's just how we thought it was going to work, and so we just elevated that."

News 4 also asked Woolley about optics surrounding the delay, and concerns from the public that the district could be covering something up.

"She's still going to share that information," said Woolley. "There is nothing that we could possibly do, quite frankly, to hide anything that's in that report."

Byrd made her intention to do exactly that during Tuesday's news conference, saying even if the district didn't give the audit's release the green light any sooner than the two-week window, she would see media members back for a separate news conference on the same topic in two weeks time.

"I just want to clarify, you know, to the public as well as to the state auditor that, you know, at the end of the day we want to take any information that she has for us and make sure that we're using it to improve conditions for our students," said Woolley. "At the end of the day, that's why we're

Tulsa Public Schools released the following statement Tuesday evening, refuting some of Byrd's claims:

Today, Tulsa Public Schools and members of its Board of Education met with representatives of the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office to receive the results of the audit of the district. During these meetings, the state auditor’s office offered an overview of their anticipated findings. 

Tulsa Public Schools did not pursue any legal action in response to the state auditor’s scheduled media appearance or report release. In fact, the district was made aware of the auditor’s plans via media reports. The statute (70 O.S., 5-127.1) in question provides for “at least fourteen (14) days prior to the release of the audit to the public.” During that time, a school district under audit may work in cooperation with the State Auditor’s office to offer any clarifying information or additional context that would be important for its stakeholders to have a full understanding of the facts. Additionally, the district does not have the full audit report, has not seen it, and does not make the decision when (or when not) to release it.

As we await the final report and supporting documents from the State Auditor’s office, we will continue to work in the cooperative spirit that Tulsa Public Schools has exercised since July of 2022. During that time, the district has welcomed the opportunity to revise and improve our practices and procedures and will continue to operate in a spirit of continuous improvement. In fact, Tulsa Public Schools has already refined and strengthened most of the areas raised by the state auditor’s office in their narrative today. Our primary focus has been, and remains, working on behalf of the young people we serve.

Tulsa Public Schools