Walters Issues Letter Addressing Tulsa Public Schools’ Leadership Vacancy

"The State Board of Education will not sit around idly while continuing to let TPS
continue down the trajectory they were on under the previous leadership"

Oklahoma City, Okla – State Superintendent Ryan Walters has issued a letter to Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum and Tulsa Public Schools Board President Stacey Woolley addressing the leadership vacancy in Tulsa Public Schools. Below are excerpts from that letter:

“The next [Tulsa] superintendent is going to inherit a district that has had deep foundational issues for years and needs to possess the strength to make hard decisions and sweeping changes. They need to be willing to take urgent action to get schools off the F-list and press for big solutions for schools that have been on the F-list for several years without improvement.

The next superintendent must also seriously address the finances of the district. TPS spends significant sums on outside vendors without good internal controls on the quality of those purchases. Delegating review and decisions to finance staff is not a serious approach to resolving the issue. The next superintendent needs to have a clear plan for reviewing and directing how TPS money is spent so that its budget is oriented toward solving failing schools and improving academic results.

The State Board of Education will not sit around idly while continuing to let TPS continue down the trajectory they were on under the previous leadership. Stop playing around the edges with programs that do not work and schools that continue to fail. There needs to be drastic change to turn the district around, and the next Superintendent needs to be aggressive in pursuing those changes. The State Board wants to use every resource at its disposal to support whoever the next superintendent is. If the next superintendent does not make the bold changes needed to improve the district, the State Board will continue to do everything in its power to ensure the success of the district.”