001We're live. Okay. Welcome everybody. Thank you for making it in on this kind of hot and humid night. It's 5:30, so I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Appreciate your attendance. Thank you, Madam Chair. If everyone would please take a minute to silence your cell phones, we would appreciate that. And if you need to have an extended conversation with the person next to you or on your phone, please do so in the lobby. Please note, spontaneous comments from the floor are not permitted. Individuals who exhibit disruptive or distracting behavior will be asked to leave. And with that, I will call the role. Paula Lewis, present. Carol Thompson, present. Lorie Bowman, Jessica Suentes, present. Dana Meister, present. Mike Shelton present. Juan Nuna present. And Maganey. We have a quorum. And if everyone would please
002rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And if you'd please remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. All right, we do have two public comments today and I'll have the clerk read the disclaimer on public comments procedure. Thank you, Madam Chair. Public comments are limited to three minutes. When several people wish to address the same subject, a spokesperson may be selected. For those making public comments, please be aware that no person will be allowed to speak regarding the following. An issue subject to collective bargaining. An issue in a pending lawsuit, complaint, or investigation filed
003with an outside agency. A pending grievance. A pending complaint filed with the school district. Any grievance or complaint should first be filed with district administration prior to being submitted to the board. A complaint against individual employees, an employee disciplinary action, suspension, or termination, a pupil suspension or appeal which may ultimately reach the board. A solicitation for business for the district to buy a product or service and disparaging comments about any individual by name shall not be permitted. Additionally, no person who has publicly announced or filed as a candidate for public office may speak during this session. The board chair may interrupt and terminate any presentation that is not in accordance with any of these criteria. In the interest of orderly conduct of board meetings, spontaneous discussion from the floor shall not be permitted. Finally, please
004note that board members may not respond to speaker comments. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Okay, we will start with Mr. Zachary Weisman and topic is agenda item 4.02, financial services update. All right. Good evening, board members and superintendent. My name is Zachary Weisman and I'm speaking tonight as a private citizen who cares deeply about the future of Oklahoma City Public Schools. First, I want to thank you. I understand the weight of the decisions you face and I appreciate your leadership in these challenging times. After reading the fiscal year 2025 financial report, I'll be honest, I'm concerned. We're projecting a 20 million deficit. Our general fund balance is below 6%, approaching the state's financial wash threshold. Revenue is lagging. Enrollment is declining and our expenses continue to outpace what we bring in. I know this
005report is meant to present the facts and it does that well. But the bigger question is what happens next? Because beyond the spreadsheets and charts, people are feeling this. Class sizes are increasing, supports are shrinking. I'm not here to critique. I'm here to ask this board to consider a long-term recovery strategy that includes clear public benchmarks for budget stabilization, strategic decisions that remain strong staff and programs, and consistent, transparent communication. The financial data shows where we are, but the absence of this roadmap is leaving many wondering, are we reacting or are we planning? Thank you for your time, your service, and your continued commitment to our students and staff. Thank you. Okay, our fi our next and our last public comment is from Mrs. Tiffany Beasley. Uh topic agenda item is renaming of the middle
006school. Welcome. Go Thunder. Thank you. That's right. Um good evening board. Um my name is Tiffany Beasley. I live in southwest Oklahoma City. I'm in that section that's actually more public schools, but I substitute in Moore and Oklahoma City. Um, this is my first time attending an Oklahoma City board meeting, and I'm here tonight to suggest a name for the new middle school if it's not too late. A few months ago, I saw a post on social media asking for the public's input on naming the school. I submitted the name Major General Rita Aragon. Um, last week I followed up and I learned that this topic would be discussed tonight. I realized this decision may already be made and I might be a little late to the game, but I feel so strongly about this.
007I wanted to make sure that you heard my recommendation and the reasons behind it. General Aragon. She was a single mother when she began working for Oklahoma City Public Schools. She was named Oklahoma City Public School Principal of the year in both 1988 and 1992. She was also awarded um the educator of the year by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce in 1990. She later joined the Oklahoma Air National Guard and in 1989 became the first female commander in the Oklahoma Air National Guard's history. In 2010, she was appointed the first female secretary of veteran affairs for Oklahoma. And in 2016, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Aragon Middle School has a nice ring to it, don't you think? It just sounds cool. I first met General Aragon in 1999 when I
008was going through officer candidate school. She was my mentor. To this day, she's someone I look up to and I believe she's someone the students of OKCPS can look up to as well. Her remarkable career started here with Oklahoma City Public Schools. And she's so actively involved in our community. I often hear her at um events like Veterans Days and she'll talk about her time with Oklahoma City Public Schools. She's a very strong advocate for this district. Um, in 2021 while speaking to a group of students, she said, "You have capabilities you've not even begun to tap into." That message and her example continue to inspire. This is a rare opportunity to honor someone whose legacy began with Oklahoma City Public Schools and has grown to represent strength, service, and excellence across our state. General
009Aragon remains an advocate for Oklahoma students and a proud representative of this district and I can think of no better person than to name this school after. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Appreciate the history. Okay, that concludes our public comments. Um, moves on to Dr. Pulk's superintendent update. Thank you, chair, as well as board members as well as those out front. I do believe we will once again uh play a video that you, the board members, uh should have received. Um, that's one of the things we're trying to get a good cadence of when it would be advantageous for you all to have. We don't post this video until after uh the presentation. But of course, board members, you'll see in the agenda what the topics are uh that's being had. And that
010uh should have been with your Sunday's update that you received it. With no further ado, please watch the screen. Hello Oklahoma City Public Schools families. I'm Dr. Jamie Pul, superintendent of Oklahoma City Public Schools. As my first school year as your superintendent comes to a close, I want to pause and say thank you. It's been an incredible journey filled with meaningful connections, powerful learning, and a shared commitment of putting students first. I'm so grateful for the warm welcome and the hard work happening across our district every day as we begin summer break. I hope your families find time to rest, recharge, and celebrate all that you've accomplished this year. We're already hard at work preparing for an amazing start to the next school year, which kicks off August 13th. In this month's message, I'll share
011exciting updates, honor some of our outstanding team members, and reflect on what makes our district First Choice. Let me start by talking about some great systems we have in place. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported this year's enrollment efforts. Whether you helped organize a district-wide event or took advantage of our easy online enrollment system, your efforts help ensure every child has access to the resources they need to succeed. I'm excited to share that we are already at nearly 70% of our expected enrollment for the upcoming school year. That's a huge help as we plan ahead, making sure we have the right number of teachers and support staff in place to serve our students. If you haven't enrolled your student yet, now's the perfect time. As we head into summer,
012I want to remind families that free summer meals will be available at select school sites. These meals are open to all children ages 1 to 18 and help ensure our students have access to healthy, nourishing food, even when school is out. Visit our website or check our social media channels for locations and times. Let's turn the page to some great learning across the district. We're seeing exciting academic growth. Early results from NWA tests show that our students increased four points in reading and five points in math from last spring to this spring. That kind of progress takes teamwork. So, thank you to our students, educators, and families for your commitment to student learning. In addition, several of our schools have been named Great Expectations Model Schools. This is an honor that recognizes strong relationships, high
013standards, and student centered learning. Congratulations to those schools. We're so proud of you. But that's not all. One of our most inspiring learning events this month was Construct My Future, where students received hands-on experience in construction, engineering, and other skilled trades. Thanks to some of our incredible workforce partners, this event gave students real insight into promising career paths and showed what's possible when education and industry come together. And I had the honor of celebrating with some of those students who signed employment contracts or join trade unions. While summer is a time for relaxing, it's also the perfect time to pick up a good book. Even reading just 15 minutes a day can make a big difference. I encourage all of our families to read together and help students stay ready for this fall. Let's shift
014our focus and talk about our great culture here at Oklahoma City Public Schools. On May 3rd, we celebrated Clara Looper Day in honor of a true Oklahoma trailblazer in education and civil rights. I had the privilege of speaking at a beautiful event featuring performances by our students and MCEd by Douglas High School's own Simone Burrow, who is also the teen assistant superintendent. Thank you to Dr. Christina Kurt and Miss Christine Miller, who organized such a meaningful tribute. May also brought one of the most joyful traditions of the year, graduation season. We proudly celebrated the class of 2025 across 11 schools. We honored 42 winter graduates and 1,84 spring graduates. These students are ready to thrive in Oklahoma City and beyond, and we couldn't be more proud of what they've accomplished. Last but not least, all
015of this couldn't happen without our great people. Earlier this month, we honored outstanding members of OKCPS at our annual Stars of Education celebration. Congratulations to our teacher of the year, Erica Vasquez, a dance teacher at Class SAS High School at Northeast, whose passion and excellence shine in everything she does. We also recognized our principles of the year, Michael Lindsby at Bridge View Elementary, Dr. Sunny Kim at Northwest Classen High School. Both lead with heart and focus. I also want to celebrate Dominique Punel, a science teacher at Southeast Middle School. I had the chance to visit her classroom on the last day of school to congratulate her in person. She's one of only three teachers in the entire state nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics teaching. Whether you're a student, staff
016member, family, or community partner, thank you for making this year so meaningful. Your support has helped lay the foundation for a bright future. Enjoy your summer. Don't forget to read and we'll see you back in our classrooms August 13th. Take care. That ends my report. Okay. Hey, does anyone have any questions or comments about the superintendent's report? Yes, sir. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just uh wanted to uh congratulate you on your first uh year and I want to congratulate our teachers uh for the work well done. Uh the uh I'm appreciative of the uh uh pre-numbers of NWA and the improvement. Uh I just felt like it was necessary that we had some amazing graduations uh and uh some exciting graduations. I just wanted to congratulate each and every school district that did
017that. Uh and all the students and faculty, staff, administrators that made that that possible. I really do appreciate that. Mr. Shelton, may I also say congratulations to you and your family for your son's graduation. Thank you so much. We are so excited. We are so excited. Uh but I just um wanted to uh congratulate cuz we were we came in together. You've been here how many days? Well, you stopped counting day by the day. Okay. Well, I know I'm one day less than you, I think. But uh uh but being at 70% of enrollment goal uh is huge. And so I wanted to congratulate all the work. I know it's been tremendous work going on in that. So, good good report. Thank you. Anyone? Yes. Yes. Congratulations again. Um, and I did want to just
018make a huge note that uh what I've seen from you, Dr. Pulk, and your leadership is incredible. Um, and I've spoken to you about this privately, but you are inspiring schools in an entire district. and that has been quite marvelous to see your leadership, your transparency, and just how uh far you've taken us and will continue to take us. Um it's it's breathtaking. So, thank you. I also would like to uh say congratulations and also say thank you for taking the time to meet with your board members. It's to me that's very important and of it's always nice to uh to have that one-on-one with you and and talk about whether it's school or it's not like we have an agenda when when when we meet with you and like that it's not like we
019have to talk about agenda one, two, and three. It's whatever I might have in my mind or or or whatever might be bothering me or whatnot. You're not just a superintendent, you're a friend. And I appreciate that. Thank you. Because you you take the time to listen and you you tackle that task. Much gracias. Okay. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Poke, for everything you have brought to this district. um your leadership, your love of our students, and thank you for guiding this board and your cabinet the way that it should be. Thank you. Okay, Dana. Well, I have to say something, don't I? Can't be the only one. And all I can think of to say is thank you so much and ditto to everything that everybody said. We truly truly appreciate you. I appreciate that
020and I would be remiss if I didn't say a very um special thank you to each and every one of you but also uh to board uh member Jessica who also graduated. Do not want that to go unsaid. I see you. We see you. Thank you to each of you. Okay, we moves us on to reports and presentations. And I'll recognize Chief of Staff Jason Galloway uh to discuss the OKCPS's board's transition to future driven and student outcomes governance. There we go. Chair Lewis, Superintendent Pulk, members of the board, it's my pleasure to come before you tonight to just provide a brief update of where we are at in regards to our futurriven student outcome goals timeline. going to walk back to February of 2023 when this school board made the commitment to partner with
021the Council of Great City Schools to transition our board governance model to one of student outcomes focused governance. Since that time, the actions have been put into motion to provide training to our school board and our executive cabinet and superintendent. We partnered with our board coach AJ Crayville and our assistant board coach Carol Beckerly uh to provide us training around the book great on their behalf which outlines the transition to student outcomes governance. Uh that took place last summer. Uh this whole entire school year we have been beginning the transition and if you reflect back to the fall we engaged in the voices for the future campaign where our school board came before our communities at eight different individual listening sessions where we were able to capture over 16,000 pieces of feedback for our community.
022and that helped inform the vision and values of the community. Then the board came together in February to discuss the feedback that they received and really started to identify what are the most high priority visions and the most high priority values uh that this community has and began to establish goals and guard rails. And those have been in interim form for uh a couple months now. and we're now on the cusp of adopting goals and guard rails. The superintendent and her team have the responsibility of aligning interim goals and guard rails to the goals and guard rails and that process is nearly finalized as well. uh but coming before the board tonight to um consider the adoption of goals and guard rails. And moving forward, what this will do is it will um spark a
023a change in board governance uh where we would develop a five-year monitoring calendar based on the interim goals and guard rails. And each one of our business uh board meetings coming up for the next five years, we would have a calendar to come before you and report out on the outcome data that uh that we've set forth in the interim goals and guard rails. And so it's a different level of accountability, a different level of transparency, and we're excited with the direction that this is moving. Thank you. That's a I like the timeline. I appreciate that. Good job board members. You guys have done a lot of work in a short amount of time. Appreciate that. Anybody have any comments, questions? Yes. I've just got a comment. Um I appreciate the clean presentation, Mr. Galloway.
024That's incredible. Um and this has obviously been a really long, lengthy process and just a reminder that this is a volunteer-based board and so we have done this out of the kindness of our hearts. I mean, we really want what's best for all of our students. uh we are the first choice. We are going to be leading and are still leading um Oklahoma as a whole. Um and I think one of the biggest takeaways that I've learned um throughout this for myself is that even though we are creating these goals for the entire district to be followed at cabinet level, schoolwide um all the schools um and it's it's going to be the goals for everybody involved in the district. Um there's a lot to be said within the uh there are adjacent goals um
025the the interim goals and guardwells that Mr. Galloway has talked about and within these goals um there's there's a lot of beautifulness that's that's happening. There's a lot of hard work behind the scenes that we all don't see. Um, and I've seen lots of people just tirelessly give to the district, to all of our students, and I think it's it's an incredible thing that we've become a part of the council of the great city schools. Um, so thank you to the leadership here on the board and of course beyond um for leading the district in this way and uh excited to see where where else we're going to go. [Music] Anybody? Well, I do agree with Jessica. It is a volunteer position, but I will tell you being in this seat has given back way
026to me more than anything I could give out of kindness of my heart. So, it is definitely service, but it gives back daily and it's an honor to be sitting here. Okay, that brings us to financial services update report presentation. I'll recognize Sydney Ward. Good evening, Chair Lewis, members of the board, Dr. Pulk. Um, I hate doing this thing. I'm going to show you March financial statements. Let's see. Which button do I push? Well, maybe I did. Oh, there we go. Okay. Sorry. Um, we've got a slight increase from February to March. We're projecting an ending revenue of about $364 million and the same with our expenses about 364 with an ending fund balance of about $29 million in general fund. Like I said, it was a slight increase from February to March. A lot
027of that's due to us stopping purchasing overall for our purchasing deadline. Formula funding, we haven't had any change. Um we won't really have a a big change until the end of the year. Then we'll get more notification on that. This isn't working. There we go. Uh the historical is the same as it was. So we'll update all this at the end of the year. Building fund slight change. Um projecting about $27 million in revenue, about $14 million um ending fund balance, and $14 million expenses. And this again is due to the timing of receiving the esser money from last year. That's why there's a bigger ending fund balance this year. School nutrition the same. Um we're we really I mean we were like $20,000 difference from February. She's going to end the year. We're projecting
028around $28 million in revenue with expenses of about 25 million and an ending fund balance of about $10 million. And that's it. Okay. A couple of things. Thank you for that. So for anyone watching who doesn't know our reason you talk about end of the year is June 30th is our end of the year. Correct. We're not projecting to December 31st. No. Right. We're projecting just to the end of this month. Okay. Just some people might not know that. Sure. Um and then I was looking at your general fund balance. We have a policy that if it goes below 6% you have to make a swear. Above 13% you have to make a swear. Correct. Um, we've hung out in that 730 to in the 7%s for quite some time except fiscal year 2022. And
029if I remember correctly, that is ESSER funding that came in from the pandemic. Correct. Yeah, that's that's when we got our big chunk of ESSER money. Yeah. So ultimately, we're really stabilizing in there. Actually went up a little bit of what you're projecting that we're going to end at. Instead of 7.3, we'll be up about 6%. Yeah, we'll be right now our projection is putting us about 6% above what we were in FY24. Um like I said, I'll get a better idea. This is only through March, so I'll have a better idea of once we get through April and May's numbers um where we're going to land. Okay. But it should it should not deviate much off this. Excellent. And then the net state aid per um weighted whatever wm stands for weighted something. Um
030it's down a little bit but that's out of our control. That's how the funding formula works. Right. That's the formula funding. Got it. Okay. That's all I had. Anyone else have any comments, questions? Okay. Yes. Um so I'm not seeing a deficit. Um is that correct? Like a 20 million deficit? No, we don't have a 20 million. Okay, that's what it Yeah, we've reduced the revenue's been reduced, but we've worked really hard at bringing our expenses down also and a lot of that is due to, you know, we had such a influx of Esser money, but when that went away, we made some really hard choices of what we needed to do not to spend that money again. So, that we didn't have. Perfect. And the other thing I wanted to point out, and I've
031pointed this out quite a bit, too, is that our weighted average daily membership has grown um from the past years. Um and again that's just a testament of the work that's being done in identifying our students appropriately and or identifying our students more um with the funding that is available. Yes. For the weights. Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Good. Okay. Okay. All right. That brings us to information agenda and I'll bring Miss Mr. Brad Herszer up to the podium. And this is talking about the 2026 2027 student academic calendars. Next year's has already been approved. This is for the following year and we do that to try to help our families be able to make plans. Board Chair Lewis, Superintendent Pope, members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to
032speak tonight. So, this is the student 2627 uh academic calendar. Uh there's really not a lot of changes to the calendar from um previously. Um the only thing I do want to point out is over the last four to six years we've had uh election day off when there is a um national election. So in 26 27 in November there will be an election uh major election then. So you will see um we have a professional development day on November 2nd and then students will be out on November 3rd for election day. Staff will be out for that day as well. No, no really other major changes there. So um questions, comments about the calendar? Yes. Um I did want to appreciate uh that the calendar is actually dual in dual languages. Um, I think
033it's pretty cool that they're that we have the calendar just all in one in Spanish and English considering almost 40% of all of our students are from Spanish speaking homes. It just helps uh families find things all in one place as opposed to going to a different website or a different part of uh OKCPS's um online services. Um so I want to encourage the practice and thank you for doing that. Okay. Thank you, Brad. Okay. Now we're on to special business and these are all possible action items. Uh our general counsel Tony Childers will come up and uh give us a short presentation um regarding the Oklahoma public monastery initiative. As you remember they were here a month ago and there was an item to ask for a pause for another year and they've gone
034back to get that information we asked for and this is why Tonyy's going to give us information. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, board members. Um, as the chair post uh stated, last board meeting was requested that we give you an update regarding OPMI, O Oklahoma Public Monatory Initiative, which is one of our authorized charters authorized in November of 20123. Um, and really my purpose is to give you an operational update as to where they currently are so you have a background and context uh to to this the the request that they've made to excuse me the requests that they've made to extend their uh the start of the calendar year for 2627. Um, as I stated, they were approved in November of 2023. We entered into a contract in 2024 and that contract provided that
035the school year would begin this coming school year 2005 20ou 2025 2026. Uh there's been some indication and conversations back and forth that they would not be ready to start the 2025 school year and as such there's been a request uh to extend their planning period so that they will not be starting until the 2026 school year. So, as usual, starting with our vision, uh we always want to start with what's most important, and that's number one, which is our students. Uh and when we're looking at what's important for our students, we're keeping in mind what is our vision for those students. And that's to provide them equitable access to a world-class education. And even though charter schools that we authorize will have their own mission statement, this is a mission statement that we ground
036ourselves in when we're looking at what is appropriate for our school district, what is appropriate for our students. So just a brief snapshot of uh the finances for OPMI. This is uh accurate as of April 30, 2025. Um just to give you some background for for charter schools, they are traditionally um paid through the state formula much as a public school is uh any other public school in the state. However, when they're in that starting phase, they're not receiving that formula dollars through the state because they don't have students. Uh so for OPMI there's really two main sources of funding. Uh the first being the Walton Family Foundation startup grant which was a lump sum grant of $250,000 that was granted earlier to OPMI and then a continuing charter school program grant for $2 million.
037Uh the $2 million grant is one that is authorized over a period of time is to be used over an 18-month period for planning and preparing. Um, so that has left them at this point with a total revenue of just a little over $370,000. Out of that 370,000, 182,000 has been uh spent uh more than 50% of which is attributable to salaries uh and the taxes that are related to those salaries. Uh the other uh percentage I think it was 48% is related to consultant fees um advertising, website, insurance, and other things that would typically go along with uh the startup of a school. And that's left them at this point with a current fund balance of just over $194,000. Now, as of May 20th, uh, OPMI board did vote to freeze expenditures, future expenditures,
038including receiving money under that CSP grant, that charter school program grant, uh, until November of this year. Uh, the reason for suspending that CSP grant is likely related to the requirement that you use that money within an 18-month period. So, if the plan would be to extend the start of the year until 2026, they would need that additional time to continue the draw off of that CSP grant. Otherwise, they'd run out of time of what is allowed um through that federal grant administered through Oklahoma Public School Resource Center. Any questions on the finance portion? No. Okay. Okay. In addition to finance, they've had some challenges related to governance and instability in their governance structure. Uh so since the beginning, they've had a high rate of turnover as you can see both in those that were
039initially listed as founders in their application, but also board members who have signed uh to to serve as board members for the for the charter. Uh the one that has been most uh regularly involved, Mr. Rufus Howard uh was a charter member uh founder uh but has been indicated that he will not be returning for the next year. Um other than that we've seen a large number at least four board members who have resigned in addition to those founders that are listed. Uh at this time uh OPMI is left with three current board members. Uh now I would point out that our own policy, board policy I22 requires that they have five board members and they've really struggled to keep that at the five number and in fact I think since they lost two last
040year they've struggled to even get to the five. They've been consistently under that five number. Um now they they have submitted a uh a plan that we received Friday afternoon uh laying out in general uh their plan for what could happen moving forward. I would say it is fairly aspirational. Uh it has a number of dates with some benchmarks of what they believe they would get to but that's complicated by these factors that we've listed up here. And the first and main concern is really the insufficient facilities at this point. uh they have not obtained a facility in order to have a charter program. Um there have been two facilities that they've looked at and there has been substantial discussion about those two facilities, but up to this date there's been no decision. There is
041no uh lease that's been entered into. Um to the extent that those properties might require any kind of construction, there's been no contracts entered into, no permits pulled. Uh so there's some substantial hurdles there to getting that property in place which is essential to getting the school started. Um we also see that they have other operational constraints and that is complicating that first issue that they have already said that they are going to be freezing expenditures at least through November. So that would also complicate the ability to get into a lease to get property and get these other things that might be required to have a facility ready for schools. Um so so there it's not just that they don't have a facility but there's some complicated um issues there in terms of getting that
042done whether construction is going to be required permitting even potentially depending on which property is provided zoning issues and getting zoning appropriately reflected so that it can be an educational uh school inside of the facility. Um and then finally as I had already mentioned those board governance and leadership deficiencies at this point there's really uh one employee that is uh left in addition to Mr. Howard. Uh there are no instructional staff that have been hired. Uh there are none who are Montasauri certified. Uh now there was a process where I believe Mr. Howard was going through some training for that. Um but but there are no other members on the board that are certified to be monastery or employees are certified monastery. uh they have contracted with an outside monatory group to help guide them
043through some of those processes but they do not have anyone on staff that is prepared to do that. Uh that was actually the subject of one of our first issues that was brought to them in July of 2024 where Mr. Jason Mack uh our charter school coordinator had conversations with them about the need to have someone in place. Um they they still do not have that person in place. Uh there was also conversations at least in that plan at that time that they'd be hiring a principal. It's been almost a year and I do not believe that a principal has been hired. So again we have some substantial burdens particularly for for for 2025 they would not be ready for school. uh for 2026, there's a significant question, a very significant question of whether they'd
044be able to overcome some of these burdens that we've discussed, those needs for finding a facility, the construction that might be required, the governance that has had that overturn and getting more into place in addition to hiring another executive director, hiring instructional staff, uh child nutrition services, all those things that go along with starting a school. So that kind of leaves us then with the board having multiple actions or or multiple uh multiple options for action. The the request that is before the board is to extend the contract or have an addendum to the contract so that they could continue to plan for another year and then start operation August of 2026. So the addendum would be to extend the contract so that they would not start operating until next year rather than this year.
045However, there's still those questions of whether we think they'd be ready by August of 2026. Other options would be to obviously to table, not necessarily make that consideration now. Um, but also uh to initiate notice of the contract violation that under the contract they were to be ready by August of 2025 to provide education to students. That was what was contracted. That was what was provided for. unfortunately did not get to that point where the school uh still does not have a facility and still is not ready to start uh start for the school year. Uh this would then allow the administration to start that conversation with them. It would not be a decision for tonight. Uh under our contract and under Oklahoma law, there is a 90-day period before the board would actually take
046action. So at this point, it would just be authorizing the administration to start that process to have those conversations with them. And then there would be a 90-day window before it would come back to you for a final decision. During that 90-day window, uh, OPMI would have the opportunity to request to present to the board, to present information to the board before the board ultimately votes on what the outcome would be. Any questions about any of those? Um, so ultimately if they're frozen till November, in order to get open in August, they'd have 8 to nine months to do everything before fall of 27 roughly with money flowing. Okay, that's correct. That's correct. Okay. And then so tonight after the discussions up here, just for clarification, this would be an action item that either it
047was even given direction to the the district either way or it's just a consensus and giving direction. I'm a little confused by that. So it it could really be either. It could it could be authorization uh or approval of the addendum which would then extend the contract to next year or it could be action to authorize the administration to start that process of notifying them of the intent to withdraw the sponsorship or authorization uh based on the issues that we've seen in the contract. Okay. Thank you. All right, Mike. Thank you again, Madam Chair. What I was going to ask is that uh is there any issue for take taking this into the new year at all that the board or school district will have for waiting until next year or for wait allowing this
048to move into a new school district is does it create a problem for the new fiscal year? Is that what you're asking? So going from June 30th to July 1st is that is that a problem? Yes. Is there it would not. In fact, the contract that we have is a five-year contract with them, which would be allowed um because it's not an it is not an expenditure of public funds and the constitution doesn't allow schools to expend funds, but this contract is just for an authorization. So, you don't get into that same issue. So, there's not a contractual legal issue there by going into the next year. Uh the issue is more of just considering you know do we do we believe that they'd be ready for opening for next year or do we find
049ourselves in a similar position next year making a consideration of here we are and families are interested in joining but are we going to have to extend it again or make a different decision at that time follow my uh question is just so I have a clear understanding is that money's frozen So, does that mean that even the person that's being able to that's supposed to pull all these pieces together or the people that are they won't be able to get paid to do this? They're going to have to do it pro bono while they're That would be my understanding. Now, that was board action. The board decided and had its own agenda item to freeze uh expenditures and to pause the grant. Uh so it it is they are able to unfreeze it. It's
050not required that they do that. That was a decision of that of that board. The plan that they've submitted uh would be that during this period of time at least through November they would start a search process where the board would be looking for an executive director. Uh but that there wouldn't be any hiring or expenditures until November where that decision would be made to hire an executive director. Uh in the meantime, to the extent that a board member could otherwise be allowed under their own bylaws to participate, uh they could assist in getting information together, but actually having an employee that would be the one for getting all of it together wouldn't really happen until November according to the plan that they submitted to us on Friday. And this might be um board or
051someone else because you're newer than I am here. So, but my question to you is is have we had a the the hurdles look extremely high uh on this trying getting them to pull this off. My question is has this h ever happened with OKCPS where they've been in it, we've agreed made the agreement and we've had to pull it back. Uh to my knowledge, not due to a failure to be ready for the school year. Um there there have been at least I believe at least one other time authorization may have been revoked but it was it was after the school year had started due to other concerns. It wasn't related to not being ready to start the school year. And my final question is uh any what seems to be the is concerning
052to see all the board members quit? Is there any is what's the what's the understanding of why that's happening? Uh I don't necessarily I I personally don't have a clear uh answer to that. Um I think when we inquired there there was even some uncertainty um for OPMI uh or the administration at OPMI what the exact reasons might be. Uh but it has been just a continual issue where they have gotten new board members on and board members that have left. Uh but I I I don't know the reason for why those individuals have made that decision and the board's going to be asked to make a decision to move forward. At what point to move forward with the revocation or at what point will they be will we be asked to make that decision?
053That's kind of our discussion tonight. So we'll discuss up here amongst us and then we'll give direction to the superintendent one way or the other like to accept the addendum request to extend the to not to let them start in 27 or to begin the process of revoking the contract and and I just I I'm I'm keep on coming with them. My question is just verify what area of the Oklahoma City area will they are they supposed to be located in. I believe that's both districts one and two, northwest quadrant of the district. Yes. So, historically, I will say I've sat through multiple presentations from charters to become authorized. We've only had what we had one that ended up going to the state board and getting authorized because we had concerns with financial things. And
054that one didn't last very long because the concerns were right. We've had three or four since I've been on the board for nine years that have closed for a variety of reasons. Some because there were some issues that were going on legally that weren't okay. Um all of those when we shutter a charter school cost quite a bit of money because when they're out of business that falls back to us to shoulder the burden of those costs. And so during my tenure, one of the things we've pushed for is a stronger onboarding of charters to make sure that we start them right. Kind of like as a business owner, you hire, right? So that you don't have to have the issue with the unemployment at the end of it. And it's it's it's more fruit.
055It's more financially feasible for us to go on the front end of a strong charter knowing that this is good. Um, and I've never seen one honestly that we've authorized rise is up and running. You know, there's schools that we had authorized about the same time that are doing great things right now. Anyone else? Carol. Thank you, chair. I would like to say to the board members and to whoever's listening that I attended a board meeting uh for this charter and was 100% appalled at what I saw from the board members of OPMI. The executive director, whose name is Rufus Howard, has a BS in organizational leadership, a master's in school administration, and he has just completed his year-long monastery training um with the Oklahoma City University, and this three-person board terminated him. Okay. Well,
056I think I think you said did you say Rufus or Rufus Howard? Okay. I thought the word I heard different. Okay. Yeah. And the three board members um that are left uh one is has been a board member for one month. Another one I have no clue what he does for a living. And the other one is a minister somewhere. Those are the people that are left to run a school with students, with children who need to be educated. And Rufus Howard was the only person there that had educational experience and they terminated him. They don't have a building. They don't have any teachers. Um the first two board members that left uh I can't I don't know why but they did they seem very strong board members. The last two board members uh resigned
057within the last two weeks. So um I saw a very promising charter school with Mr. Howard as the executive director because he had a strong force behind him which was his heart and the desire to educate Oklahoma City children in a different way that no longer exists. So I recommend that we revoke the authorization for OPMI. Thank you. Thank you. No, it's not a motion. Just a We're just chitchatting. We'll do that in a minute. Yeah. So official. Exactly. No, we'll get there. All right, Jessica. Yes. Um I had a question about the 90-day period. Uh when did that start and when does that end and and what like what are we deciding again or what will we be deciding in the 90-day period? So the 90-day period wouldn't start until uh once we are
058authorized as administration to move forward to notify them. Once we notify them, they have a 90-day window before you as a board can make the final decision to actually revoke the authorization. Uh so during that period of time, there's a built-in process where they would be able to appear before the board, present information to the board, uh and make their uh make their plea to the board. So they would have that opportunity to appear before you. Uh so 90 days once that authorization is uh received by them or excuse me once the notice is received by them uh before the board to make that decision. Okay. And I I don't want to set up a school to fail because I I really don't see what what the charter is doing to fix some of these
059issues. um like I didn't see it in the in the presentation and even now I'm learning a lot more um as to what is missing. Um but I mean that's I think that's just what I'm seeing now. So okay, anyone else? All right. So do I need to make a motion? Is that what I need to do? Madam Chair, point of order. Mr. Mr. Childers, if I may, uh, for the record, I believe if a motion was made referring to the possible revocation, it would be along the lines of the following, and I would appreciate the general counsel confirming if this is correct or not. Motion to authorize district administration to issue notice to Oklahoma Public Monouri Initiative Incorporated of an alleged breach of contract and the board's potential consideration of revocation of charter sponsorship
060as provided by Oklahoma law and the terms of the charter contract. Is that correct, sir? That's correct. And that would then allow us to make the notice and start that 90-day window. Is that the motion you were trying to make, Carol? Yes, it was. Okay. Are you making that motion? I am making that motion now. Second. Second. Okay, there you go. I have a motion from member Thompson and a second by member Shelton as noted, as already indicated. Okay, if there's no further discussion, call the vote. Having received eight I votes and zero nay votes. The motion carry. I'm sorry, seven I votes and zero nay votes. The motion carries. Thank you. That brings us to 6.02. consider taking action to name the new OKCPS middle school Skyline Middle School. Um, I did again want
061to say thank you so much for talking to us about Major General Rita Aragon. I love history and that's phenomenal history and I appreciate you sharing your mentor story. Thank you for that. Okay, Meg, do you have a motion for us? I sure do. I motion to name the new OKCPS middle school at South 25th and High Skyline Middle School. All right. Juan, do you have a second for us? Yes. Second. Second. Okay. Is there any discussion or comments on this? And this did go through a process so it wasn't just tonight. Um I I have a whole bunch of ideas about how I would like to know more history about our graduates, but that's for a sideline. But I wanted you to hear us say we heard you and I will work through that
062as we can get better at this. Okay. If there's no comments, anybody? I'd like to just I know that there's been some questions that we just chatter. Um and I came in late and thank OKC traffic. Um I had the privilege of sitting on the committee to participate with the there were students, there were teachers, there were community members to name this this school. Um, it was a very organized and data-driven method of arriving at Skyline. And so I, anybody listening or anybody here in the audience, um, it wasn't, uh, pulling out of a hat. It wasn't anything, you know, everybody there took it very seriously, including our student representatives. Um, so I just want to reaffirm and reassure people that this name was taken into consideration amongst many really cool names. Um, and this
063was the one that was ultimately selected by the committee. Anyone else? All right, call the vote. While we're waiting for the votes to pop up, if you did serve on that committee and took your time to um take in community input and have conversation, thank you for that. Having received seven I votes and zero nay votes, the motion carries. All right. 6.03 brings Tony back to the to the podium. I should have just kept you there. The 6.03 103 is to consider taking action on revisions to board policy G--02 non-discrimination. If you remember, this was on information agenda last business meeting in May as is our policy so the public and everyone has time to weigh in. I will make this motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Is there any discussion or any questions
064for Tony? Just curious if there was any comment from community to your knowledge. No, generally these policies are not presented to community. They're completely board decisions in terms of what your policy is. Well, it makes the agenda. So, it is it does get Yeah. And there was nothing received in terms of public comment. Nothing received after our initial information item that was presented to the board. Um, so no. And again, these were very minor changes. It was changing some of the wording to align with some of the provisions in federal law. Okay, I call the vote. Having received seven I votes and zero nay votes, the motion carries. Okay. Is there a motion to adopt revisions to board policy G-03, harassment prohibited? Anyone motion? I'll make a motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Call
065the vote. If there's no discussion Having received seven I votes and zero nay votes, the motion carries. Thank you. This brings us to consent agenda. Is there a member who desires to pull any items for discussion only or to be voted on separately? Is there a motion for the to approve the consent agenda? We moved. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Call the vote. Having received seven I votes, zero nay votes, the motion carries. Okay, there is no new business, uh, I'll make a motion to consider entering into exe to enter into executive session. Is there a second? Second. Call the vote. having received seven I votes and zero nay votes. The motion carries. Okay. Thank you. All right. Let the record show the board returned from executive session at Well, I don't know
066what time 7:02. I missed the last seven minutes. Thank you, Madam Chair, and the clerk will read the executive session compliance statement. The board entered into executive session at 6:32 p.m. and returned to open session at 7:02 p.m. on June 2nd, 2025. Individuals present in executive session included all board members present at this meeting, Laura Holmes and Dr. Pulk. The board discussed the evaluation and employment of the superintendent. No actions were taken during executive session. That concludes the reading of the executive session compliance statement. Thank you so much. I move to approve the addendum to employment contract of Dr. Jamie C. Pulk based on having met the goals established for the 2024 2025 fiscal year. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Call for the vote. And members, please disregard your computers there. We're going to
067be doing a voice voice vote and I will call each member for a vote. Paula Lewis, yes. Carol Thompson, yes. Jessica Safuentes, yes. Dana Meister, yes. Mike Shelton, yes. Yes. Juan Lakona, yes. Maganey, yes. Having received seven I votes and zero nay votes, the motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Pulk and her team for the work you guys have done. I'll stand up for you. Thank you. There you go. Okay. So, everybody just wants to hang around a little bit. Nobody wants to adjurnn right now. Just kidding. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I second. All right. Call the vote. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Hearing none. The motion carries. We are the board is adjourned.