Oklahoma school primary 2023

Tuesday, Februrary 14, 2023, is the annual school primary for all Oklahoma public school districts. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can view your sample ballot and find the address of your polling place at the Oklahoma Voter Portal.

At least one school board seat in every district is up for re-election every year, but this year as always few are contested. Up through the 2018 election, any contested school board seat would be on the ballot for the 2nd Tuesday in February, with a runoff on the 1st Tuesday in April if no one won a majority of the vote. Now, the February election is regarded as a primary and the April election as a general, so any race with only two candidates automatically occurs in April, and the April election serves as a runoff for races with three or more candidates where none wins more than 50% of the vote.

Tulsa County has only one school board race on Tuesday's ballot: Owasso Office No. 3. Incumbent Neal Kessler, a 47-year-old registered Republican, is being challenged by Republican Vincent Donaldson, 67, and Democrat Kristy Moon, 41. Donaldson is a retired Tulsa Public School teacher with 21 years of service, 18 of which were in special education, and is now a Realtor. The Tulsa County Republican Party Candidate Committee interviewed and recommended Vincent Donaldson.

Here are their social media and web pages.

Vincent Donaldson: Campaign website, campaign FB page, personal FB profile.
Neal Kessler: Campaign website, campaign FB page, personal FB profile.
Kristy Moon: Campaign FB page.

Owasso schools have been in the news, and not in a good way, several times in the past year, garnering the attention of Libs of TikTok as well as traditional media. In October, Owasso superintendent Margaret Coates banned a student's father from school grounds; the father had confronted his board member after a board meeting over pornographic materials in the school library. A federal judge slapped down the school's ban. During the previous school year, Owasso middle school teacher Tyler Wrynn posted a TikTok video telling his students, "F--- your parents! I'm your parents now!" While Wrynn left Owasso (and wound up at Tulsa Will Rogers High School), Owasso parents reasonably want to know how a self-proclaimed anarchist hostile to parental authority over their middle-school children gets hired by their allegedly conservative district.

Three other Tulsa County districts each have two bond issues on the ballot. School bond issues result in a property tax increase, as the annual debt service for each bond is divided across the district's total assessed property value, resulting in the tax rate increase. The increase in property taxes from a bond issue approval may be offset by a decrease as previous bond issues are paid off, but approving any bond issue will result in higher property taxes than if the bond issue were defeated. Unlike most propositions in Oklahoma, school bond issues must pass by 60% of those voting. The 2017 School Bond Transparency Act, requires school districts to publish details of their proposed and past bond issue expenditures; see below to links for those districts with bond issues on the ballot. Except where noted, Proposition No. 1 is always for "constructing, equipping, repairing and remodeling school buildings, acquiring school furniture, fixtures and equipment and acquiring and improving school sites" (building and equipment) and Proposition No. 2 is for "purchasing transportation equipment."

Jenks Public Schools:

• Jenks 2023 bond transparency act statement
• Proposition No. 1 (building & equipment): $16,255,000
• Proposition No. 2 (transportation equipment): $945,000 for

Skiatook Public Schools:

• Skiatook 2023 bond transparency act statement
• Proposition No. 1 (building & equipment): $13,470,000
• Proposition No. 2 (transportation equipment): $730,000

Union Public Schools:

• Union 2023 bond transparency act statement
• Proposition No. 1 (building & equipment): $146,540,000
• Proposition No. 2 (transportation equipment): $5,460,000

In our neighboring counties, there are contested elections for school board Office No. 3 in Chouteau-Mazie, Claremore, and Wagoner, and school bond issue propositions (links go to the Bond Transparency Act notice for each district). Prop 1 is for buildings & equipment, Prop 2 for transportation equipment unless otherwise noted.

• Bartlesville: Prop 1, $37,400,000; Prop 2, $600,000.
• Catoosa: Prop for buildings & equipment, $9,000,000 to cover elementary school cost overruns
• Coweta: Prop for buildings & equipment, $50,200,000
• Fort Gibson: Prop 1, $6,400,000; Prop 2, $600,000.
• Inola: Prop 1, $2,075,000; Prop 2, $510,000.
• Olive: Prop 1, $830,000; Prop 2, $285,000.
• Osage Hills: Prop 1, $195,100; Prop 2, $100,000.
• Sequoyah (Rogers Co.): Prop 1, $18,385,000; Prop 2, $400,000.
• Woodland (Osage Co.): Proposition (transportation equipment) $460,000.

Some municipalities also have elections. Broken Arrow has a 25-year electric franchise vote on the ballot for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. Bristow has a mayor's race, and there is one city council race each in Okmulgee and Pawhuska.

MORE: A couple of images from a promotional flyer for Sequoyah's bond issue illustrate the ugliness that modern school governance and finance produces. Here is the Rogers County Model School (later Sequoyah School), 1914-1915, a dignified two-story brick schoolhouse:

And here is "the vision of the future" -- a massive, mostly empty parking lot surrounded by metal buildings with a bit of decorative brickwork:

UPDATE: An election day morning email from the Tulsa County Republican Party adds some perspective:

Happy Valentine's Day

Nothing says, "I LOVE YOU" quite like higher taxes and fees

In select areas of Tulsa County there are elections today. On the day when we should be thinking of flowers and chocolates and romantic dinners, we must take a brief moment out of our time and VOTE!

School bonds affect your property taxes. I'm sure they are telling you that your property tax won't increase if you pass their Bond Package, but what they fail to tell you is that if the bond FAILS, your property taxes WILL go down.

Fun fact:

One of the reasons the schools fight so hard to keep our School Board and bond package elections when you least expect an election (like Valentine's Day) is because of low voter turnout which gives them the advantage on getting the bond passed or their candidate elected.

City of Broken Arrow Residents ONLY Special PSO Utility Franchise Election

This is to vote on the 25-year renewal - PSO currently pays the City of Broken Arrow a 2% franchise fee on gross receipts that goes into the general fund. Under the new agreement, an additional 1% fee is to be used for improvements like street lighting, underground utilities, etc.

Going from 2% to 3% is a 50% increase on the fees we pay as consumers. You don't think PSO is absorbing the cost of the increase now do you?

Because this is a "fee" (fancy word for tax), it only requires a simple majority vote.