3 Western Heights board members resign, including president

Three members of the Western Heights Board of Education have resigned following a failed yearlong battle against a state takeover of the struggling Oklahoma City school district, The Oklahoman confirmed.

Board President Robert Everman and members Bob Sharp and Linda Farley submitted their resignation Tuesday, the district’s interim superintendent, Brayden Savage, said.

In his resignation letter, Everman said he is retiring after 27 years on the board “not due to any offers or public pressure, but as a result of personal health issues.”

The Oklahoma State Board of Education has urged Everman to resign since August 2021, calling him a “cancer” and a “scorn” to the school district.

Sharp said he resigned over “unforeseen circumstances” that kept him from fulfilling requirements to continue in his position, according to his resignation letter.

More:Oklahoma Supreme Court upholds Western Heights takeover, superintendent suspension

Farley did not cite a reason for her departure.

“It is with great trepidation and sorow (sic) that I submit my resignation from the Western Heights School Board effective immediately,” Farley wrote. “I want to thank the school district for allowing me to serve our community as a school board member.”

State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said the resignations "while long overdue, are a triumph for the families and students of the Western Heights school district.”

“We applaud this as a major step forward in regaining the trust of the community and providing the high-quality education all Oklahoma children need and deserve,” Hofmeister said in a statement.

The state Board of Education last year suspended Western Heights’ superintendent, Mannix Barnes, and in July 2021 voted to take over operations of the district. It installed an interim superintendent in Barnes’ place.

State officials said at the time Western Heights had among the worst academic results in the state, lost almost 40% of its employees and hundreds of students, and left urgent maintenance issues unaddressed, among numerous other problems.

Everman led the board in brazen opposition to the state Education Department’s intervention. The board attempted to appoint its own interim superintendent despite the state having selected one already.

Farley and Sharp often voted in agreement with the board president, creating a majority on the five-member board that aligned with Everman’s wishes.

Everman and the board’s voting majority refused to recognize the state-appointed superintendent or the takeover until an Oklahoma County district judge issued a court order forcing them to comply.

The school board continued to pursue a lawsuit to challenge the intervention. The state Supreme Court shut the door on that legal challenge last month, ruling the state was within its rights to take over the district.

Even after the Oklahoma County court order, Everman butted heads with the state-appointed superintendent, Monty Guthrie, going as far as posting his own agenda for a school board meeting to overwrite Guthrie’s agenda.

Since that bizarre meeting in October 2021, Everman and the board’s attorney, Jerry Colclazier, made the final call on board meeting agendas, an authority state officials later alleged Everman leveraged to block the release of a scathing audit of the school district.

That audit reported 19 significant deficiencies that occurred under Barnes’ leadership. The audit found 10 overpaid employees, five underpaid workers and over $1 million spent without abiding by the district’s own purchasing policies, among other concerns.

Once the audit finally came before the board after months of delay, Everman called the auditor’s work “disingenuous” and cast doubt on the findings.

Guthrie left Western Heights in January for another superintendent position in eastern Oklahoma. The state then appointed Brayden Savage, a former Western Heights administrator, to the interim job.

Briana Flatley, one of two remaining school board members, said the three resignations came as a “blindside.” Flatley said she did not expect Sharp and Farley to depart along with Everman, whom state officials have pressured for over a year to step down.

“It’s a win for our district,” Flatley said. “It is a step in the right direction, and our district can start healing again.”

A revocation hearing to potentially take away Barnes’ superintendent license is scheduled for Dec. 6.

Under state law, the governor would appoint new members to a local school board that has too few remaining members to establish quorum. In the meantime, the board will not be able to meet.

Hofmeister said three board members leaving at the same time is “not altogether well-intentioned.”

“By ensuring there will not be a quorum, these members are hobbling the ability of the district to conduct important business until a new member is appointed by the governor,” she said. “Ultimately these departures will benefit the district, but it seems these board members had one final game to play.”

Western Heights residents and parents received news of the resignations with celebration. Members of a community Facebook page quickly set to finding replacements for the departing board members.

Many of those community members have packed board meetings for more than a year and regularly urged Everman, Sharp and Farley to resign.

Flatley thanked district residents for their “unwavering dedication” to Western Heights schools.

“As a board member, I look forward to focusing on the needs of our students and providing more consistent and stable governance for our schools,” Flatley said. “We will be working in partnership with the Oklahoma State Department of Education to determine the next steps of the appointment process.”

Everman celebrated the district's “great accomplishments” during his tenure, including development of an intranet network in the late 1990s, construction of 11 new schools and sports facilities, and the discovery that the state had shorted Western Heights millions in funding. The district sued the state Education Department, and a state audit confirmed the shortage.

“Although I will no longer be a Board Member, I remain a loyal patron and continue to pray for your strength, wisdom and courage to stand up for what is right,” Everman wrote in his resignation letter to the board.

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.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Western Heights school board president, two members resign