Public education saved Jena Nelson's life, now she vows to protect Oklahoma schools

Jena Nelson sat at her desk at Deer Creek Middle School in January of 2022 writing a recommendation letter for yet another teacher leaving the profession she has built her life around.

This was the 30th time Nelson had been asked to write such a letter. Nelson felt both sadness and empathy at the teachers leaving. At the same time, Nelson said she got on her phone and was hearing "hurtful" words describing Oklahoma teachers, and she'd had enough.

"I just kind of sat there and I go, 'This has got to stop. Someone has to speak up for the profession that I love,'" Nelson said.

Nelson, who has been a teacher for a cumulative 17 years and was the 2020 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, said it was then she decided to run for state superintendent of public instruction. The term-limited state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister is running for governor and received an annual salary of $124,000 during her last three years in office running the Oklahoma State Department of Education, which makes policy decisions for public schools in Oklahoma.

Nelson said there's "so much at stake in this election" and that she's the right choice for the job because of her award-winning teaching experience, service on national and state education boards, and her dedication to the prosperity of public schools in Oklahoma.

If elected, Nelson said she'll focus on keeping public dollars in public schools, giving teachers and school support staff competitive wages, putting a counselor with mental health training in every school, and bringing broadband internet and better access to STEM programs to rural schools.

Public school is Oklahoma's 'greatest treasure,' Nelson says

During an October campaign event in Moore, where Nelson met with area teachers, supporters and skeptics alike, the Broken Bow native emphasized in a self-described "spicy" speech that the state schools superintendent should be a supporter of public schools.

This was a dig at her opponent Ryan Walters, Gov. Kevin Stitt's appointed secretary of education and a former teacher, who along with the governor supported a failed legislative school voucher plan that Nelson says would have been detrimental to public schools, especially in rural areas.

"(Public school) is the greatest treasure that we have in our state," Nelson said. "And we need to make sure we have someone who believes in the power of public education and who's dedicated their life to making things better."

Polling has shown a competitive race between Nelson and Walters, with Nelson leading her opponent by five points in a September survey by SoonerPoll. An October survey by Amber Integrated showed Walters leading 52% to 43%, while a survey taken around the same time by Ascend Action again showed Nelson with a five-point lead.

Hank Austin, a lifelong friend of Nelson's and former-political-consultant-turned-teacher, said he hopes voters will avoid checking the straight-party option and "consider that there's more on the line locally."

"This is not a national race. This is not a Democrat versus Republican platform," Austin said. "This is about the future of public schools in our state. And that doesn't have anything to do with Joe Biden or Donald Trump."

Public education a lifeline for Nelson during traumatic childhood

Growing up in rural southeast Oklahoma, Nelson said she can relate to many Oklahoma students who live in poverty and experience homes full of trauma, abuse and mental illness. The Tulsa World reported Nelson's mother suffered from mental illness and her father "was the source of a lot of trauma."

"She had a lot of obstacles to overcome," Austin said. "She could have gone one of two ways, as every other child has that option. And she almost went down a bad road ... and a teacher stepped in and steered her in a better direction."

Nelson said her community had labeled her early on as "one of those kids," and she was told she was destined to be a drug addict or pregnant by the time she turned 18.

But public school became a place of safety and escape for Nelson, where the teachers of the K-8 Lukfata school district believed in her and fostered a passion of learning. Janet Parks taught her the power of the written word. Leroy Beam, who was at once her bus driver, teacher and a coach, inspired a love for history.

It was at Broken Bow high school where Nelson met the teacher who she said "saved" her life. She was on her way to "make a very bad decision" when her speech and drama teacher, Stephen Smallwood, told her to take her passion and her anger and put it into his classroom.

Under Smallwood's mentorship, Nelson became a valuable part of his speech team, traveling for competitions across the state, and held important roles in school musicals. Nelson said Smallwood moved her from a "pathway of trauma to a pathway of hope." She became the first person in her family to go to college when she headed to Louisiana's Northwestern State University.

"I was able to break that cycle of trauma because of my teachers," Nelson said.

Smallwood told The Oklahoman he had no idea what an impact that day would have on Nelson's life, but that he saw her potential and knew there was no use in her getting in trouble. He was doing what every teacher would, he said.

It has been amazing to watch Nelson move from her "humble beginnings," Smallwood said, to where she is today.

"A little girl from southeastern Oklahoma grew up to be the 2020 state teacher of the year, and to run for state superintendent, because public education allowed her to do that," Smallwood said.

Nelson found calling in teaching and learning from students

Nelson has worked in schools in Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana and Oklahoma, teaching subjects including drama and English. She was teaching composition at Deer Creek Middle School when she was named 2020 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year.

Today she is on a leave of absence from her post as a sixth- and seventh-grade English teacher at Oklahoma City's Classen School of Advanced Studies Middle School. If elected, her time away from the field would continue, which is at once strange and exciting for Nelson.

"I would have the ability to reach all schools and work with all teachers," she said. "And so I've gone from one classroom to a very large classroom, and I think that that perspective keeps me motivated."

A mom to a college freshman and middle school student, Nelson said having children in public school gives her the ability to understand both the educator and parent perspectives. Nelson's husband, Karl, is a professor and director of Choral Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma. The two met while she was teaching drama in Baton Rouge and he was studying for his doctorate.

After high school, Nelson originally got a degree in drama and wanted to go into directing. She was working in Baton Rouge when she began volunteering at an inner-city after-school program teaching acting classes. A lightbulb turned on for Nelson during this time, and she realized she had a passion for teaching and working with students every day. She was then hired to teach full time as a drama teacher and spent two more years doing so in Louisiana.

Nelson quickly found she was not only there to teach but also to learn, herself, from her students.

"There's this great quote in 'The King and I' that says, 'By our pupils, we'll be taught,'" Nelson said. "And that's how I felt about my first two years of teaching. Even though I had all this knowledge and background I was sharing with them, they were teaching me how to become a better teacher."

'I've never had a teacher do anything like that'

After following her husband to both Mississippi and Indiana for jobs at different universities, Nelson ended up back home in Oklahoma when her husband accepted the position at UCO.

Laura Bell, 24, was a student of Nelson's at Edmond North High School where she said Nelson created a "safe space" for her theater and drama students. Bell and others often found themselves spending free time before school and during lunch in Nelson's classroom.

During the summer between ninth and tenth grades, Bell traveled with Nelson and other students to Scotland to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Bell fell ill after returning and ended up in the hospital, where Nelson showed up along with Bell's castmates and began decorating her room with One Direction posters, a nod to Bell's favorite musical group at the time.

"I've never had a teacher do anything like that," Bell said.

Nelson said her time in education has kept her in the "presence of perpetual hope," but it hasn't been without its challenges. Among them were the low pay, many of her colleagues having to take second jobs to get by and the general negative rhetoric surrounding the profession.

Oklahoma Education Association President Katherine Bishop said nearly every decision that affects public schools is made by an elected official. But she said this election is especially important given the "false culture wars" that have overtaken conversations about Oklahoma schools.

"This election, you have two candidates that are starkly different," Bishop said. "You have a candidate that is very pro public education, and then a candidate that is very pro voucher, not necessarily supportive of public education."

Jena Nelson says she will 'defend public education,' not 'defund' it

When it comes to issues voters are concerned about, Nelson said there isn't one new program or one solution to fix it all. It's a lot of little things here and there that will bring about change, she said.

First, ensuring school vouchers allocating public money to private schools for any student don't come to fruition is a main talking point for Nelson, while her opponent strongly supports it.

"Whether they want to call it a tax credit, or ... a scholarship or whatever they want to call it ... that is defunding public education," Nelson said. "And we don't need a state superintendent who wants to defund public education. We need a state superintendent who wants to defend public education."

In addition to keeping taxpayer dollars in public schools, Nelson said she will fight to protect rural schools that are often the heart of their communities. She wants to see high-speed internet access in every school, as well as offer rural students access to more science, technology, engineering and mathematics, practical life skills and professional career programs. In the same vein, urban students should have opportunities to learn and participate in agricultural programs, she said.

State testing also needs to be revamped, Nelson said. She would like to see Oklahoma schools do "benchmark" testing at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. The last test can qualify for state testing data, and the others can help teachers intervene sooner when a child needs additional assistance in an area.

"Once they've already left our class, we don't get to pull them back and say, 'Oh, that's what we needed to fix on,'" Nelson said.

Nelson hopes to improve mental health in schools, reverse teacher flight

Oklahoma has some of the highest rates of adverse childhood experiences in the nation, and Nelson said that trauma students are experiencing has a huge impact on test scores and learning outcomes. She would like to see teachers learning how to implement trauma-informed practices in their classrooms, both when in college and in emergency certification programs. Substitute teachers and current teachers should receive this training, as well, she said.

And every student and school staff member should have access to mental health care, even if it's through a telehealth option.

Nelson also said every January she would send out a "school culture survey" where teachers can anonymously discuss any issues going on at the school, as well as whether they plan to return to their school in the fall.

One of the issues weighing heaviest on the minds of Nelson and her fellow teachers is the continued loss of educators to other professions and states. A lack of respect, which includes pay, is a driving force of this "teacher flight," said Kristi Kringlin, who worked with Nelson at Deer Creek Middle School.

A Stitt-backed bill that became law in May created matching state funds for teacher raises, which Stitt has touted could allow teachers to make as much as $100,000, but Nelson said this just isn't feasible for Oklahoma districts that would have to pay half of the raises. Nelson said she does support Hofmeister's plan for a fully state-funded $5,000 raise for teachers.

Kringlin said this election is "make or break" for reversing teacher flight.

"Whatever happens in November, if it doesn't go our way, I say you're going to see a second wave of (teacher) resignations," Kringlin said.

Nelson's grassroots campaign raises more than half-a-million

While Nelson doesn't have any major endorsements, compared to Walters' endorsements from Stitt, former Gov. Frank Keating and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, her grassroots campaign has raised over $530,000 according to her campaign finance report filed Oct. 27.

A vast majority of that — $460,000 — was donated between Aug. 9 and Oct. 24, marking a huge boost in donations after automatically receiving the Democratic Party nomination because she was the only Democrat who filed for the position. In August, just before the runoff election where her opponent defeated Shawnee Public Schools Superintendent April Grace, she had only reported raising $75,000.

Donors who contributed the maximum $2,900 include former OU President David Boren and his wife, Molly; the Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation; and Paycom CEO Chad Richison and his wife, Charis.

Other notable donors include Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby, who donated $1,000; former Oklahoma attorney general and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Drew Edmondson, who donated $1,250; and former Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, who gave $1,000.

The Oklahoman counted donations from at least 14 current school superintendents, including the Tulsa, Sand Springs and Oklahoma City public schools superintendents. There were also at least 84 teachers and educators from both large and small school districts across the state, as well as at least 34 self-identified retired teachers.

Nelson received $33,000 from political action committees, including $5,000 from Homeroom Oklahoma; $2,000 from the American Federation of Teachers Oklahoma; $2,000 from the American Federation of Teachers Oklahoma City; $5,000 from the Oklahoma Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education; and $5,000 from the Oklahoma Retired Educators Fund.

Nelson has been endorsed by McAlester Mayor John Browne — the same town where Walters grew up and worked as a history teacher. Browne said the election for Oklahoma's next state superintendent is critical.

"If Ryan Walters wins, his divisive, dangerous policies and plans will destroy our education system, including McAlester's beloved public schools, the cornerstones of our rural community," Browne said in a statement.

Nelson also has support from state legislators like Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, and Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City.

"She just wants to do what she can to help our public schools and our kids," Rosecrants told The Oklahoman at Nelson's campaign stop in Moore. "And she's running against one of the worst candidates I have ever seen in my entire life for this job. … She understands that we have to have parents and teachers together instead of falling for these issues that are meant to separate parents and teachers."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Get to know Oklahoma superintendent election candidate Jena Nelson