Next school board member will campaign in private

The three winners of this month’s Oklahoma City Public Schools board elections had to spend months knocking doors, sending mailers and attending various forums in an effort to win voter support.

The candidates also had to emerge past a primary and runoff election.

But whoever is able to win the next open board seat, which is for the vacancy created in District 4 when Paula Lewis was elected chair this month, will campaign while sitting at a conference room table away from the public.

The process for filling a midterm seat is for the school board to hold a public vote on an appointment, which is expected no later than June 17 for the District 4 seat. The board is now accepting applications for the position until April 28.

After the deadline, the board will review candidates for the open seat with at least two executive sessions to meet with prospective board members and interview them.

Executive sessions are closed-door meetings and are not open to the public.

The state allows school boards to meet in private for a variety of reasons, including to “discuss the employment, hiring, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining or resignation of any individual salaried public officer or employee.”

Joey Senat, an Oklahoma State University professor and open government expert, said two state attorney general opinions from the 1990s give school boards the legal leeway to hold private meetings in reviewing an appointment to a public board.

“A 1992 Attorney General opinion concluded that a county commission could hold an executive session under the Open Meeting Act to discuss the appointment of an individual to fill a vacancy in an elective county office,” Senat said in an email about an AG opinion that might apply to school boards.

Senat also referenced a 1996 opinion that backed the right of school boards to use executive sessions to interview prospective new members.

“And, of course, the board cannot vote in executive session to appoint the person,” Senat added.

Lewis, who now serves as chair of the school board, said the process of using an executive session allowed current board members to ask questions in private and avoid coming across as supporting one candidate over another, which could create a hostile environment between them and the board member who is ultimately selected.

She also said that voters were invited to reach out to her with their ideas on prospective candidates. “This isn’t an election, so it is different,” Lewis said. “But I really don’t see any other way to do it.”

The person appointed to the District 4 seat will only serve on the board until the 2018 election cycle.

The school board has held executive sessions before when interviewing candidates for an open seat but it’s quite a reversal from the campaign season that just ended.

The three new board members had to face tough questions about their positions on a variety of school-related issues.

The next board member may also face tough questioning, but voters won’t see it.