TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Deborah Gist responded Friday to accusations made toward the district made by state officials and school board members in the wake of a potential audit.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt called for a special audit of TPS on Thursday, accusing the district of mishandling funds and violating state law on teaching Critical Race Theory. School board members E'Lena Ashley and Dr. Jenetti Marshall reached out to Stitt's office to request the audit.
On a call with local media Friday, Gist addressed the district's ongoing investigation into misuse of funding that she called an unsubstantial amount of money relative to the district's budget. The investigation into exactly what happened is still underway.
"It's difficult to know that we've had this incident, but I'm going to handle it like we handle everything which is to dive in and do what we need to do to make improvements," Gist said.
Gist pointed out that the inevitable audit will come out of the district's budget, but that cost isn't available yet. Despite the cost, Gist says she welcomes the review and she believes the board members who have concerns are acting in good faith.
"I think it's very appropriate for Tulsans to have questions about this situation — I have questions about this situation," Gist says. "There has been a long history of the governor's interest in Tulsa Public Schools, his looseness with the facts when it comes to Tulsa Public Schools."
Stitt, along with Ashley and Marshall, questioned the district's use of $200 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds. Gist said she's confident the district used the funding appropriately.
"The issue that we've been looking into here locally — there's no evidence that it's connected to those [COVID relief] funds," Gist says, pointing out the district's website that tracks its federal funding allocations. "We've been really transparent about that. Unfortunately, I think the governor has a lot of questions he needs to answer about some of those recovery dollars and I think there are numerous examples of real problems with our state's management under the governor's leadership of federal dollars."
The superintendent ripped Stitt and State Sec. of Education Ryan Walters for misspending federal relief money as reported in an investigation by The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch in May. Gist's clashes with the governor's office date back to the height of the pandemic in which Stitt consistently criticized how long TPS kept students in distance learning.
Stitt's latest accusations went beyond money mismanagement, raising concerns about TPS violating state law put in place by House Bill 1775 that prohibits the teaching of "Critical Race Theory" and any lessons that could be perceived as showing that one race or sex is superior to another. Gist flatly denied the accusation, saying Critical Race Theory is not something that is taught in elementary, middle or high schools.
"What we do have in our district is a deep commitment to teaching both a complete and full history of our community, our state, our country, our world, and also a deep commitment to making sure that as a school system we embrace our children and the adults in our system — both the team members and our families — for their whole, true authentic selves," Gist says. The Oklahoma State Board of Education sent a letter to TPS in June after they determined in what they called a "close call" that recent professional development training for staff about "race and ethnic education" violated state law.
"It's a completely manageable situation and I think it's unfortunate for people to try to scare families in our state and bring people to believe that there is anything going on in our schools other than a group of people working hard to provide an excellent educational experience and keep kids safe and keep them coming home from school every day feeling excited and ready to get up and go the next day."
Trending Stories:
- Founders of Oklahoma nonprofit facing animal cruelty charges
- DOWNLOAD the 2 News Oklahoma app for alerts
- SCOTUS' Castro-Huerta ruling means life sentence for convicted teen stands
- FOLLOW 2 News Oklahoma on Facebook
- Surprise 100th birthday held for Oklahoma WWII veteran
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
