Ryan Walters claims Mid-Del Public Schools misspent funding, demands millions in repayment

William C. Wertz, The Oklahoman
·3 min read
State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters attends an April 25 Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City.
State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters attends an April 25 Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City.

State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters has sent the Mid-Del Public Schools district a bill for more than half a million dollars.

In what he called a "warning and request for remediation," Walters sent the district a letter Wednesday signed by the Oklahoma State Department of Education's new general counsel, Michael T. Beason, saying the district "must return" $573,588.96 that Walters claims it misspent from 2020-2022.

The letter said the district also "must submit a Corrective Action Plan addressing the strengthening of internal controls and the identification of allowable/non-allowable expenditures in the management of federal funding."

In response, the school district said it "will abide by their request to return the funds and work with the Office of Title Services to re-allocate them in a manner that they feel is allowable."

The district said that during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, it used pandemic relief funds "only after receiving guidance and approval from the OSDE at that time." It said "the expenditures aligned with our understanding of the federal guidelines and those of OSDE staff."

However, it said, "the letter we received today states that the U.S. Department of Education “explicitly prohibits the use of these funds for athletic facilities ... (and adds) ... that this prohibition is found in guidance published December 7, 2022, which is almost six months after the last time we used federal funds on our athletics fields."

Nevertheless, the district said, it would return the money and review its purchasingpurchasing policies and procedures, noting that it had received such a review during a visit from the State Education Department in early April and were "thanked forour cooperation and told that 'no further action is required.'”

District Superintendent Rick Cobb had addressed the allegation of misspending in January at an Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting.

Rick Cobb, superintendent of Mid-Del Public Schools, speaks during a Jan. 25 Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City.
Rick Cobb, superintendent of Mid-Del Public Schools, speaks during a Jan. 25 Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City.

Mid-Del Public Schools Superintendent accuses Ryan Walters of defaming district

In a forceful presentation, Cobb accused Walters of defaming the district, which serves parts of Midwest City, Del City and Oklahoma City.

Cobb said he had heard nothing from the state Education Department about any funding issue until Walters — at a state Senate budget hearing — alleged that Mid-Del misspent more than $500,000 of federal funds “on lawn care that is expressly prohibited in federal rules and regulations."

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“Your statement was wrong, on multiple levels, and I can’t stand idly by and let you defame our great school district or any of the hard-working people handling our federal programs applications and claims, up to and including myself,” Cobb said at the January meeting.

In his Wednesday request for repayment, Walters alleged the district misspent federal money on "athletic lawn services" that were not allowable under coronavirus response and relief funds sent to the state.

Cobb said the district followed federal guidelines allowing the money to be used for “other activities that are necessary to maintain the operation of and continuity of services … and continuing to employ existing staff.” He said the district "took extra care to ask questions, sometimes redundantly," because "we wanted to make sure to get everything right from the beginning.”

Cobb also said state Education Department staff approved the spending. “Further clarification for you and your staff can be found in the Uniform Grant Guidance, which includes allowances for using federal funds for “care of grounds,” he said.

The "Letter of Warning and Request for Remediation" signed by Beason was the first public indication that the department had selected a new general counsel. Bryan Cleveland, who had served as the department's general counsel since January 2023, resigned in March, along with three other in-house attorneys, leaving the agency with no in-house legal counsel. More than 130 other employees also have left the agency since Walters took office, most via resignation or retirement.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters claims Mid-Del Public Schools misspent funds