School board candidate’s claim falls short
An Oklahoma City Board of Education candidate blamed a potentially disqualifying issue with her voter registration history on the 2019 school consolidation plan Pathway to Greatness — a claim that has little basis in fact.
In a candidate forum Tuesday evening, Sharri Coleman said she lived in her district in Oklahoma City Public Schools for years except for a temporary period.
The University of Oklahoma professor, former schoolteacher and podiatrist is running in the April 5 school board election for the District 5 seat in OKCPS. District 5 covers the east end of the school system.
Voter registration records show she switched to an address in District 5 on Dec. 3, only days before filing to run for office.
That falls short of legal requirements for school board candidates, who have to reside and be a registered voter within the boundaries of their desired seat for six months before filing to run.
Coleman, 50, claimed Pathway to Greatness, which closed 15 schools and reconfigured 17, took her out of her district area.
But the 2019 consolidation plan didn’t change the boundaries of any school board seat in the Oklahoma City district.
“I lived in the district and have lived in the district for years,” Coleman said in the candidate forum. “Due to Pathway to Greatness, I was out of it temporarily. Pathway to Greatness went into effect a couple years ago, and I made the necessary steps that I needed to take to make sure that I was in compliance.”
Coleman did not return a request for comment for this story.
She was registered at an address in the Lincoln Terrace neighborhood by the state Capitol for several years until December, when she changed her voter registration to a rental house in District 5.
Her longtime Lincoln Terrace address has been in District 4 for at least a decade. The school district confirmed its school board boundaries have been
the same since 2011.
Coleman made the switch three days before the candidate filing period opened on Dec. 6, well short of the sixmonth requirement.
This could have potentially disqualified her from the ballot had her opponent reported it to election authorities.
Her opponent, Adrian Anderson, did not contest her candidacy. The two-day window to do so in December has passed.
“I also will say that I announced my candidacy in November,” Coleman said during the candidate forum. “I filed in December, started my campaign in January. I’ve been running since then. Here we are March 29. So, any questions that needed to be asked, should have been asked back in December.”
When The Oklahoman first questioned Coleman about her voter registration history, she said, “There’s nothing else to know” other than she is registered in District 5 and has a residence in the area.
Not until after The Oklahoman reported the deficiency in her registration record did she blame school consolidations for affecting her residence.
Board seat boundaries are reviewed every 10 years after the U.S. Census. The current board zones in OKCPS accord to the 2010 Census because changes from the 2020 Census haven’t been implemented yet, the district said.
Pathway to Greatness didn’t rearrange board boundaries, but it did change the schools within each board district. It also affected the schools where children were geographically assigned.
A home can be zoned to schools in multiple board districts.
For example, Coleman’s former Lincoln Terrace address is zoned to Wilson Elementary in District 4, but the assigned middle school and high school are in District 5, according to the school locator tool on the OKCPS website.
The school locator tool makes clear which school board district an address is within. Voter registration information also lists the board district where a person resides.
Doubts have circulated for months about whether Coleman lives in the District 5 address on her voter registration.
The residence is a run-down rental house that neighbors say has long been vacant. Meanwhile, neighbors in Lincoln Terrace told The Oklahoman a married couple still occupies the home where Coleman was registered until Dec. 3, the same address her husband lists on his voter registration.
Anderson, Coleman’s opponent, said he had heard the rumors but thought they were just hearsay.
He previously told The Oklahoman he thought the Oklahoma County Election Board would verify each candidate’s address and voter registration record to ensure they met qualifications.
Election authorities accept candidate filing information on its face. Only when an opponent files a contest of candidacy is an address or registration history investigated.
“I was focused on filing and being ready to campaign about who I was,” Anderson said. “I just figured if that was the case there would be a process for somebody to vet through that.”
Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.