OSBE delays vote on minutes tied to social studies standards vote for second time
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A late Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting Wednesday afternoon saw board members pick up where they left off when it came to vocal pushback over approving their own minutes.
The minutes in question were tied to board meetings in January and February. Minutes in connection to a board meeting in April were approved.
During the April meeting, board member Ryan Deatherage raised concerns about the validity of the February minutes. The minutes showed Deatherage had made a motion to approve social studies standards that were passed. Deatherage was the only no vote, but the digital recording of the meeting has been deleted from the Oklahoma State Department of Education's social media account.
Other board members also complained about a lack of context in the transcription of the meeting about who was saying what.
Issues with the January meeting minutes, raised by new board members, centered around the fact that they were not present to verify that what the minutes said occurred was accurate. Both the January and February minutes were tabled until the May meeting, held on Wednesday.
Wednesday's meeting saw concerns about January's minutes revisited first, with new board members saying they still didn't feel comfortable approving them since they didn't attend the meeting. Legal counsel for the board said that they could file the minutes without approving them, but that urgency was needed to comply with open meetings laws.
Board members ultimately voted to file them without approval.
The minutes surrounding the February meeting took up the majority of the conversation on that item, starting with board member Mike Tinney raising concerns about approving them since they could come up in court.
"Until there's some resolution there, my motion is just to table those minutes," said Tinney.
Board member Chris Van Denhende declined to get into a thorough debate about the minutes due to the lawsuit.
"I don't think, given the pending lawsuit, it would be appropriate to have those discussions," said Van Denhende.
The February minutes were also questioned again by Deatherage, saying that the minutes had not been corrected in the binder packets the board receives. The board's executive secretary said she did make the correction, but that it was not present in the packets the board had in front of them.
"We need to see the drafts in plenty of time so we don't have this issue again," said Van Denhende, who noted there was just too much confusion on the topic.
Tinney made a motion to table the February minutes again, with the intention of revisiting them when the updated correction is redistributed to the board with proper time and notice to review the change.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters was the only "no" vote on Tinney's motion.
Walters declined to take questions after the board meeting.