Tulsa Education: August 2023 Archives

Happy news late this afternoon that Deborah Gist has resigned as superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools. Gist resigns as the state's largest school district faces a hearing on Thursday at the State Board of Education on the loss of its accreditation.

The threat to pull accreditation stems from poor academic performance and lack of financial controls. Alleged embezzlement of nearly $500,000 by Chief Talent and Equity Officer Devin Fletcher and alleged kickbacks to other unnamed employees point to a lack of financial controls and oversight by the Gist administration and the school board majority who have propped her up. Despite the district experiencing year after year of dismal test scores during Gist's tenure, the Tulsa school board majority continued to renew her contract well in advance of its expiration, with some renewals timed such that newly elected board members could not have a vote in the matter.

In a public statement, Gist stated that her handpicked successor would be chosen by the board to continue her work:

There will be a special board meeting on Wednesday evening where the board will consider my separation and the appointment of Dr. Ebony Johnson as interim superintendent. I am enthusiastic about the board's plan to act upon the appointment of our colleague as interim superintendent. As you know, Dr. Johnson is a lifelong Tulsan, a stellar educator, a strong leader, and a remarkable human being. With the leadership of Dr. Johnson, our team will keep the work of our plan on track and will reach even higher.

"The board's plan to act" suggests that a violation of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act has occurred. Any discussion should occur in a public meeting with adequate public notice. The use of serial private meetings with fewer than a quorum at each in order to avoid an open meeting has itself been found to be a violation of the Open Meeting Act. Board member Jerry Griffin, a critic of Gist, said that he had been kept in the dark:

In light of recent reports surrounding the resignation of Dr. Gist, Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, I find it crucial to clarify my position and understanding of the matter. The news surrounding the resignation of Dr. Gist has taken many by surprise, and I wish to expressly state that I too was unaware of the decision until it emerged in the media. Various statements have indicated that this was a decision made by the Tulsa School Board, of which I am a part. However, I was neither consulted nor informed about this decision at any point in time. I must stress that I have not been privy to any discussions regarding the resignation, nor have I been involved in decisions about the interim Superintendent's appointment. These developments have been made without my knowledge or consent.

The Tulsa school board will meet tomorrow, Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at 5:30 p.m., in the Cheryl Selman Room, ground floor, at the Education Service Center, 3027 S. New Haven Ave. From the agenda it appears that the useless board majority intends to give Gist a golden parachute (note item D):

C. Motion, second, discussion and vote on motion to approve a mutual separation agreement with Dr. Deborah Gist as Superintendent of Schools, effective September 15, 2023, at 11:59 p.m.

D. Motion, second, discussion and vote on motion to approve amending the district's 403(b) annuity plan to allow nonelective post-employment employer contributions, and authorize the attorneys for the district to prepare/approve the appropriate plan amendment document(s) and the proper officers of the Board of Education to execute the document(s) on behalf of the district.

E. Approve an emergency waiver of the policy suspension procedures in Board Policy 1201 and immediately suspend all requirements under board policies for posting and advertising the position of interim Superintendent of Schools....

G. Motion, second, discussion and vote on motion to appoint Dr. Ebony Johnson as the interim Superintendent of Schools and approve an employment contract with Dr. Johnson to serve as interim superintendent of schools effective September 16, 2023.

The board will go into executive session regarding Gist and Johnson before items C and G, respectively.

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Gist herself indicates that her resignation is meant to appease the State Department of Education and forestall loss of accreditation:

I am confident that my departure will help to keep our democratically-elected leadership and our team in charge of our schools-this week and in the future.

The Oklahoma state school board should not be satisfied that only one head of the hydra has been severed. Gist's departure is happy news, but it's only the beginning of the cleanup effort. All of Gist's cronies, all of the strings-attached foundation grants, the ties to Tulsa's control-freak philanthropocracy, the useless board majority that kept extending her contract and failed to exercise oversight -- they all need to go. State Superintendent Ryan Walters and the State Board of Education should not relent until the cleanup is complete.

It's ridiculous to suggest that we have effective, democratic local control of schools. Oklahoma's school election laws are ideal for thwarting voter involvement -- filing period in early December as families are focused on the end of the fall semester and Christmas, campaigning through the darkest and coldest months of the year so no door-knocking after work during the week, and staggered terms (four years in Tulsa, five years most other places) so voters cannot throw all the bums out in one revolt. Reform of school elections -- I suggest two-year terms and November elections in odd numbered years -- will improve democratic accountability in the long run. In the meantime, when our "local control" has failed to maintain financial control and academic performance, the state has a responsibility to clean house. This happened in 2021 during the administration of State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, when Western Heights School District in Oklahoma City lost its accreditation after a period of probation.

Only 26 districts in the state scored lower than Tulsa Public Schools in composite academic achievement in 2021-2022, the most recent year for which results have been published. 32 of TPS's 46 elementary schools had 0 students scoring at a proficient or advanced level in the 2021 assessments. Defenders of the TPS status quo claimed that 49 districts have worse performance than TPS, and State Superintendent Ryan Walters should focus his attention elsewhere. But TPS is the largest district in the state, and there are 490 districts that have better performance. The percentage of TPS students at proficient or advanced levels is only 8.86%. Tulsa ranks 18th worst district in percentage of students "below basic" achievement levels at 64.4% -- nearly two-thirds. (Data exported from the SDE interactive data browser is the source of these statistics.)

Earlier this month, Democrat State Rep. Jacob Rosecrants urged that "we need to look past standardized test scores as a way to determine if a school district is failing or not." He claimed that inner-city "student trauma" gets in the way of test performance and the state should respond with "more resources." (Thread captured here.)

If students can't read, they can't read. One-room-schoolhouse teachers -- my great-grandfather was one -- managed to teach poor farm kids -- like my grandfather -- how to read in between fall harvest and spring planting. Public schools in the Depression managed to teach reading, despite plenty of trauma. Self-styled "public education advocates" need to stop making excuses for failed educational philosophies that no amount of money can rescue.

I find it interesting that City of Tulsa and Tulsa Regional Chamber officials continue to speak about TPS as if it were the sole school district of importance. I haven't run the numbers, but I feel certain that there are far more school children living in the City of Tulsa who attend Jenks, Union, Broken Arrow, Bixby, and other public school districts, charter schools, and private schools, or are homeschooled than attend TPS. That's definitely the case for the Tulsa metropolitan region. City officials should tout the wide range of educational options the city has to offer, while treating TPS as a problem to be solved; instead, they defend the fellow insiders who have driven TPS into the ground. If they really are worried about workforce development as they claim, city and chamber officials should demand strong action to clean up TPS.

State Superintendent Walters and the state school board should not be placated by Gist's resignation. I hope that they will act boldly on Thursday to clean up TPS, for the sake of the children who are stuck there and for the district's once-proud legacy. I expect that the System is hoping that sacrificing Gist will allow them to retain control of TPS. (No doubt a very nice sinecure in a non-profit has been set aside for her.) I hope they are mistaken.

Concluding this blog post by switching movie villainesses: Remember, the squashing of the Wicked Witch of the East was at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz. The final defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys didn't happen until the end.

Special congratulations go to Tulsa Parents Voice for their research and persistence in documenting Gist's failures, pressing for an audit of TPS finances, and continuing the battle for reform.

MORE: LibsOfTikTok has posted a video by Union Public Schools elementary school librarian Kirby MacKenzie. MacKenzie superimposed this text atop video of herself strutting with an armload of books: "POV: teachers in your state are dropping like flies, but you are *still* just not quite finished pushing your woke agenda at the public school." MacKenzie is also an assistant director at Gaining Ground. KTUL reported that Union Public Schools spokesperson Chris Payne claimed, without evidence, that the video had been "doctored up."

Payne denied, however, that Mackenzie made the video, despite it appearing on her own TikTok page under her name. The video, they said, was edited by a third party and was not Mackenzie's creation.

"That is the doctored-up version of a video that [Mackenzie] made," Payne told CITC via phone. "They have made changes to her video. What we're talking about isn't even her video, it's one that has been doctored up. Obviously, they have an agenda."

CITC could not identify any differences between the video originally published by Mackenzie on TikTok and the version circulating social media on Tuesday.

When asked for clarification, Payne was unable to identify the "original" video or describe who had allegedly edited it. He also could not explain how the allegedly edited video had been posted to Mackenzie's page without her knowledge or consent.

After a series of emails from CITC attempting to verify the district's claim, Payne said "we are done" and implied CITC was pushing an agenda.

CITC is Crisis in the Classroom, the national education reporting arm of Sinclair Broadcast Group, parent company of KTUL. Their Twitter account, @CITClassroom, provides a feed of stories reported by Sinclair stations across the country on educational failures, predatory teachers, teachers' union activity, pornographic books in school libraries, and the rise of school choice. Recent Oklahoma stories covered a grandparent's claim that Oologah Middle School ran out of cafeteria food and the new school choice tax credit law. Several times they've called attention to their analysis questioning Joe Biden's demand for teacher raises, noting a 43-year long increase in teacher pay (except for the effects of Bidenflation) and plummeting student performance.

This is an encouraging development: A major media chain has noticed widespread parental concerns about public schools and is wisely making it a focus of their local news coverage.

Tulsa Public Schools made the Mail Online on July 30, 2023, as one of 7 school districts in the US with active contracts for Confucius Classrooms, a propaganda outreach of the Chinese Communist Party.

China is funding America's public schools to the tune of $17 million dollars, it has been revealed, with Republicans now probing the disturbing donations.

The report by Parents Defending Education states that the close coordination between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and U.S. schools to establish Confucius Classrooms has historically included 143 school districts in 34 states and Washington, D.C.

In addition, at least seven contracts are still active in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.

A year ago, July 2022, BatesLine reported on the Tulsa Public Schools board vote on accepting a Confucius Classroom grant for Booker T. Washington High School, the ninth year of the program. The grant had been hidden in a "consent agenda," a long list of items to be approved en masse without discussion or debate, but because three of the six board members present voted against the agenda, several items were brought back individually for consideration at a later meeting. Only one board member, newly elected District 4 member E'Lena Ashley, had the courage and wisdom to vote against accepting the grant and contract "with International Leadership of Texas, in partnership with Confucius Classroom Coordination Offices."

This map ran with the Daily Mail's story:

The story cites PDE's recent report, "Little Red Classrooms," and quotes several Members of Congress concerned by the findings:

Rep. Jim Banks is demanding the Education Department take action with 'urgency' in in order to terminate these 'disturbing' partnerships, he says in a letter to Sec. Miguel Cardona on Wednesday obtained by DailyMail.com.

'The Chinese Communist Party is not a trustworthy partner. Accepting funding and influence from our greatest adversary is a threat to America's children and national security,' Banks told DailyMail.com.

He wrote in the letter that the U.S. must 'take every measure' to strengthen its defenses against China including by 'blocking their ability to propagandize in America's K-12 schools.'...

PDE's "Little Red Classrooms" report also mentions Tulsa's "Carver Middle School... which became a "Confucius School" through Hanban&emdash;the subdivision of the Chinese Ministry of Education that, until 2021, operated Confucius Institutes and Classrooms. (This is mentioned on the Carver website under the Global Awareness tab and has beencaptured by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.)

PDE discusses the use of third-party organizations to mask the funding ties to the Chinese Communist Party:

Other districts mask Chinese government funding through third-party nonprofit entities. Such is the case in schools in Oklahoma, Texas, and North Carolina.

Take the International Leadership of Texas Global, for example--a nonprofit organization that has taken on being an administration apparatus and passthrough for the continuation of the Confucius Classroom programming. Tulsa Public Schools' Board of Education has a contract with the Confucius Classroom Coordination Offices through the International Leadership of Texas Global. Highland Park Independent School District in Texas also received funding from the International Leadership of Texas Global to facilitate its "Chinese core curriculum."

As BatesLine reported last year, International Leadership of Texas operates a network of 22 charter schools, with four more campuses currently in development, plus 4 affiliated private high schools. Recent news items on their website indicate that alignment with China and its Communist government is a high priority for the organization, and also reinforce concerns raised by PDE about Chinese Communist influence over Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Programs at Confucius Classroom schools:

• First and Only ILTexas Student Thrives in Chinese Flagship Program: A student ILTexas Katy-Westpark High School is the "first and only ILTexas student to attend the university's Flagship Program within its Intensive Chinese Program in the Summer Language Institute. Her accomplishments are so impressive, Ole Miss has offered to pay for the dual credit opportunity this Fall."
• ILTexas Opens New State-of-the-Art Marine Corps JROTC Facility: "ILTexas has the highest Marine Corps JROTC enrollment percentage of any high school in the country where MCJROTC enrollment is optional. An ILTexas cadet spoke at the ceremony, stating the new facility 'will be the center of gravity for cadets to learn leadership, develop their character, and become the best versions of themselves.'"
• Ole Miss Sees Record Number of Students for Chinese Program, Most from ILTexas: "The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) welcomed 74 high school students for its Summer Language Institute, and reports in a University news article that the Intensive Chinese Program drew a record number of rising juniors and seniors. 69 of the 74 students who attended the summer program are ILTexas students.... International Leadership of Texas' mission is to prepare students for exceptional leadership roles in the international community. The United States declares Chinese as a critical language, recognizing it as a National Security Language. Therefore, all ILTexas students master Mandarin Chinese as part of the core curriculum."
• Summer Camp Highlights Cybersecurity, Language and Leadership for ILTexas Students: "In addition to Cybersecurity and Leadership, students also practiced their Mandarin Chinese during the summer camp, as it's a National Security Language. All ILTexas students take Chinese language classes during the regular school year with the goal of mastering the language by graduation."
• "This is the closest thing to actually going to China:" ILTexas Students Dive Into the Chinese Culture at the University of Mississippi : "ILTexas is proud to partner with the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) to allow our students to take part in a complete Chinese cultural immersion experience.... Chinese is recognized as a National Security Language, and is a pillar of the ILTexas core curriculum. "
• Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang Visits ILTexas : "International Leadership of Texas teachers and staff filled the gym of ILTexas Garland High School on Tuesday, May 31, to welcome the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang. A special luncheon was held in the school library for the Ambassador and ILTexas leadership. The luncheon was followed by a ceremony where ILTexas teachers, students, and headquarter staff honored the Ambassador's visit. Senator Royce West and his wife, Carol West were also in attendance."

At the July 10, 2023, Tulsa school board meeting, renewal of the Confucius Classroom agreement was once again included in the "Consent Agenda," a list of 33 items to be approved as a group by the school board without debate, as item E.7.:

RECOMMENDATION: Renew the agreement for the Confucius Classroom Coordination Offices through the International Leadership of Texas, a 501c3 organization, an international partnership dedicated to building the field of Chinese language teachers and Chinese language learning in American schools for the 2023-2024 school year.

FURTHER RECOMMEND:
The attorneys for the school district approve the appropriate contract document(s) and the proper officers of the Board of Education be authorized to execute the document(s) on behalf of the district.

COST: No cost to the district

FUND NAME/ACCOUNT: Confucius Classroom 81-2273-1000-000000-000-07-735

RATIONALE:
This will be Booker T. Washington's fourteenth year to participate in a Confucius Classroom program. International Leadership Texas, in partnership with the CCCO, offers a quality program which will allow our students to continue in the study of the Chinese language.

Note that last year's agenda claimed that 2022-2023 would be the ninth year, but this year's agenda claims that 2023-2024 is the 14th year of the program at Booker T. Washington High School. Once again, E'Lena Ashley was the only board member to vote against the contract.

Meanwhile, only 27.9% of economically disadvantaged TPS K-5 students and only 25% of Grade 6-8 students are reading at or above the national median student, but TPS administrators feel great about it -- by 2027 they hope that only two-thirds of disadvantaged TPS students will be worse readers than the national median.

MORE: Stream of the July 10, 2023, Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education meeting.