OKC school board members agree on need for change

While meetings this week reinforced the need for a change in school district culture, board members who attended and some who didn’t questioned whether a high-priced consultant is necessary.

The board will ultimately decide whom to hire to assist with Oklahoma City Public Schools’ transformation process should the district decide to go that route.

Only three of eight panel members — Rebecca Budd, Charles Henry and Mark Mann — attended informational meetings Wednesday with representatives from Kotter International, a management consulting firm based in Seattle and Boston.

John Kotter, the firm’s founder, is a retired Harvard professor who specializes in organizational leadership and change.

Select teachers, principals and central office staff, including Superintendent Aurora Lora, also attended two two-hour meetings.

“Basically, this was the first step to determine if they are a good fit for us and us for them,” a district spokeswoman said.

Board member Mark Mann said the district needs to change the way it operates and communicates and delivers services.

“The general consensus is that we need to go through some sort of transformational change,” he said. “Hopefully this process will help us move more quickly in that direction.”

Board member Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs didn’t attend either two-hour session because she said she had to work.

“I think people go to as much as they can,” she said Friday. “We just found out about it last week, so it may have been a bit late for some folks.

“I don’t think it necessarily means people are opposed or in favor or whatever. I think it’s hard to find time for everything.”

Board chairwoman Paula Lewis didn’t attend because she said she was traveling. Ruth Veales said she had to work. When asked why he didn’t attend, Ron Mil- lican said, “No particular reason just haven’t scheduled.”

Gloria Torres did not respond to a request for comment.

Coppernoll said transformation “clearly” is needed.

“What that transformation looks like, I don’t know,” she said. “I think for Kotter to work out, we’d have to raise money privately.

“If that happened, that decision process would still have to include the district, the union, the board and the community. Any kind of change has to involve a will to change from everyone involved, otherwise it’s predestined to fail.”

While several panel members believe the district needs to change the way it does business, not all are sold on Kotter.

“There are some great educational agents out there that could come in a help us, but we don’t have the money for consultants right now,” Budd said. “We have been told the problems from the front lines over and over and over again. For us to hire a very expensive consultant at this time with no money sends the wrong message to them.”

Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers President Ed Allen is a fan of Kotter, and has repeatedly called for the district to transform its “dysfunctional” culture by hiring him.

“I think everyone thought they were good sessions,” Allen said Friday. “Everyone was in agreement that we have serious problems and everyone agreed that we need to go through a transformation process.

“We agreed that what we don’t have yet is kind of a working definition of what transformation would look like. We need a definition because one person’s transformation might not be the same as another person’s.”

Allen said no commitments have been made to engage Kotter or anyone else. “It’s a possibility but it may not happen,” he said.

The union leader said it will cost “seven figures” for Kotter’s services, but added there are no plans for the district to spend money for them.

“If we do make the commitment then we do have to raise the money,” he said. “We don’t have a specific proposal.”