Western Heights board head under fire
State agency calls for immediate resignation
Oklahoma’s top school board called for the head of the Western Heights Board of Education to resign immediately.
The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to demand the resignation of Robert Everman, president of the Western Heights school board.
Western Heights wasn’t the only school district to come under board scrutiny Thursday. The board indicated future action on Ninnekah Public Schools, a southwest Oklahoma district reeling from a sexual abuse scandal, and suspended the certification of a longtime Shawnee Public Schools
coach accused of sexual misconduct.
State board member Trent Smith said Everman should step down for “a million reasons, not the least of which are his incestuous business relationship with former Superintendent Mannix Barnes (and) his blatant disregard for use of taxpayer dollars.”
Smith and the state board encouraged Western Heights parents and stakeholders to put as much pressure on Everman as possible.
“He is a scorn on your school district and a cancer in your midst, and he needs to be removed as soon as possible,” Smith said. “I regret that we can’t do more.”
Everman didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Barnes and Everman have worked together for several years at the Oklahoma Department of Labor, Lupus Foundation of Oklahoma and Lucky Star Casinos.
Their tenure at each workplace resulted in complaints of retaliatory behavior, hostile environments and fiscal mismanagement, said Brad Clark, general counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Everman and Barnes have shown an “incestuous relationship that’s ripe for demise of the culture within an organization, if not the organization itself,” Clark said at a June 24 state board meeting.
Western Heights has been steeped in legal trouble for months. The state board placed the southwest Oklahoma City district on probation in April after more than a year of dysfunction and heavy losses in staff and students.
Western Heights leaders took little to no action to address the state’s concerns, Clark said. Instead, the district sued to challenge its probationary status.
After the state board of education suspended Barnes’ superintendent certification in June, Everman and the Western Heights school board gave him a three-year contract extension and a $25,000 bonus.
When the state board voted to take
“He is a scorn on your school district and a cancer in your midst, and he needs to be removed as soon as possible.”
Trent Smith state board member on Robert Everman, president of the Western Heights school board
over operations of Western Heights on July 12, Everman and local school board members rejected the state’s authority and appointed their own candidate for interim superintendent.
An Oklahoma County district judge issued a court order Aug. 12 forcing the district to comply with the state takeover. Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons also ordered Western Heights to accept Monty Guthrie, the state-appointed interim superintendent. The school district retained four attorneys while pursuing the case in Timmons’ court.
“I question why Western Heights needs twice as many attorneys as the entire state Department of Education,” Smith said.
Board planning ‘next steps’ after Ninnekah scandal
The state board received an update on a “horrible situation” in Ninnekah schools during its meeting Thursday.
Board member Brian Bobek said the board is taking “very, very seriously” an investigation into Ninnekah, where 15 young women have sued the school district amid a sexual abuse scandal.
“Next steps will be coming,” Bobek said.
The women filed the lawsuit in Oklahoma City federal court, alleging Ninnekah administrators and staff failed to investigate and report allegations of sexual abuse by former girls basketball coach Ronald Gene Akins.
Akins, 54, has been arrested and charged with two counts of felony sexual battery and two counts of felony rape by instrumentation.
The state board suspended Akins’ teaching certificate in July.
State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said the board could vote on other certification suspensions or revocations. The state board is preparing to vote in a future meeting on the district’s accreditation status, as well, she said.
The Ninnekah Board of Education suspended district Superintendent Todd Bunch and high school Principal David Pitts on Wednesday.
Ninnekah school board President Rusty Garrett and clerk Scott Miller resigned after taking criticism in the wake of the scandal.
Bunch and Pitts are listed as defendants in the federal lawsuit. Victims allege both knew or should have known about Akins’ alleged abuse but failed to report it to the proper authorities.
Officials from the state Education Department’s legal and Title IX departments have been investigating and visiting on site in Ninnekah, Hofmeister said.
“While we are unable to take specific action today ... we still feel it’s important to address the general public and the community of Ninnekah that we hear them and we are supportive of all those who have been in any way harmed,” she said.
Shawnee coach suspended over sexual misconduct allegations
The state board also suspended the certification of Ronald Arthur, a former Shawnee High School boys basketball coach accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.
Arthur, 51, has been arrested on complaints of forcible sodomy, lewd acts with a child, child sexual abuse and use of technology to solicit sexual conduct with a minor. Charges have not been filed against him in court.
Arthur has been suspended with pay since Aug. 2 from his position as assistant athletic director. Shawnee Superintendent April Grace recommended on Thursday that Arthur be dismissed.
The Shawnee Board of Education will decide whether to oust Arthur at a hearing on Sept. 18.
His attorney, Shelley Levisay, said Arthur is innocent of all crimes and turned himself in.
“My client has cooperated and told the (Pottawatomie County) sheriff’s office that there was a consensual act with that particular individual but he was graduated from high school at the time,” Levisay said.