Walters aide
email message from The Oklahoman on Friday and efforts to reach her Saturday were not successful. State Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, told The Oklahoman on Friday he had received an email from Thomas’ work address that morning, an indication she was working at the agency that day.
If Thomas indeed has left, her resignation will have been the latest highprofile departure to have impacted Walters’ administration since he took office at the start of 2023 and the third since just the beginning of this month.
March 1 was the last day of work for Ryan Pieper, the agency’s executive director of accreditation. He confirmed to The Oklahoman both he and the agency’s general counsel, Bryan Cleveland, were stepping away from their posts.
Asked about the agency’s departures this week, state Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said he’s “watching” what’s happening with interest.
“I don’t have a lot of insight as to what led to those,” Treat said. “But I’m watching it, because one of the most critical things we do is public education and that agency’s extremely important to delivering that product.”
Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, said turnover in institutional knowledge in any organization is concerning “from the outside looking in. ... For myself, it’s important. We spend time insuring we maintain the best people possible, because these state agencies and these institutions, having institutional knowledge, helps the functionality, helps the institution meet its mission.”
McCall said Tuesday that he hadn’t spoken to Walters about the departures.
“We have talked regarding some other issues this session regarding education,” McCall said. “He’s not mentioned any concern to me that he has regarding (agency departures).”
Walters’ administration is involved in controversial issues.
McCall said March 18 lawmakers would consider putting limits on the ability of Walters’ agency to spend state funds for personal promotion, following a report it spent $30,000 to hire an outside public relations firm to set up national media interviews for the superintendent.
Walters’ agency also is defending itself against a lawsuit filed against Walters and the Oklahoma State Board of Education on behalf of a Moore Public Schools student who seeks to change their pronouns in school records.
The student’s request violates a policy the state board approved in January that prohibits school districts and local schools from “altering sex or gender designations in past student records” without its authorization.
Meanwhile, Walters’ legal team was turned away this month from participating in a case before Oklahoma’s Supreme Court that seeks to overturn the creation of Oklahoma’s first religious charter school. His agency has unsuccessfully sought to be allowed to enter arguments into the case three times.
An advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign also recently started a “Remove Ryan Walters” campaign, featuring a website that opposes his administration.
Should Thomas’ departure raise concerns?
While turnover is routine any state agency when its elected leadership changes, the number of departures at the education department have been surprising, especially those this year.
Pieper’s role as the agency’s executive director of accreditation and Cleveland’s role as the agency’s general counsel handled significant responsibilities that impact both the agency the school systems it serves.
If Thomas too has left, that means the agency has lost the CEO that runs its daily operations.
Just through September of 2023, about 86 employees had left the agency since Walters took office.
While it wasn’t clear if they quit or were fired, what was clear was they represented a broad spectrum of positions, departments and seniority levels.
Those who left during Walters’ first year on the job included Terri Grissom, who wrote applications for competitive federal grants for the state Education Department for five years and Michelle Strain, whose work focused on crisis counseling, suicide and bullying prevention, school climate, homeless student services and more.
“I would think that it has a direct impact on the type and amount of services you can provide to schools,” Strain said about the resignations, after she had left her post last year.
“I don’t know all the positions that have been vacated, but I can tell you that when we lost people in our department even before I left, for any reason, it meant a reduction in service.”