School board members help with budgets, policies; a few may go rogue

Sep. 20—School board members help in various ways, from watching over the superintendent to creating policies, and they're considered to be elected officials.

Shawn Hime, Oklahoma State School Board Association executive director, said Oklahoma school boards are elected by the people, similar to how state representatives, county commissioners, city councils, and more are chosen.

And since they're elected, they hold their offices until voters reject them — sometimes, even if they bully their peers on the board.

"They come from all walks of life: doctors, lawyers, farmers, ranchers, teachers, parents, and just anyone who is interested, which we like," Hime said. "We hope the local community is well-represented on the local school board."

Hime said having these various representations on a school board helps others relate and feel like they know the governing body of a school.

The size of each school is a determining factor in not only how many board members a district can have, but how long their terms last. Hime said the length of a board member's term is set by state law.

"If it's a five-member school board, each seat has an election once every five years," Himes said. "If it's a seven-member school board, then they have it every four years, and we also have a few of the elementary districts [where there] are three-member boards."

Hime said there is no recall provision in place for the voting public in Oklahoma for statutorily elected officials, such as legislators or school board members.

"They are really beholden to the people who elect them. At the end of the day, it is up to the people who elect them to put them in office and then decide at the next election if they deserve to stay in office," Hime said.

Hime said this basically means the public could not sign a petition to recall an official from office. A board member could be asked to exit the seat if a certain crime were to be committed.

"There are certain elected officials [for whom] you can gather signatures and get a 'recall position' and then it can go back to a vote as to whether or not to recall tham. That is not the current law for school board members," said Chrissi Nimmo, Tahlequah School Board of Education president.

Nimmo said she, and the rest of her colleagues, are elected officials, and they answer to the voters. OSSBA is not over Oklahoma school boards rather they partner with the group to help members understand their responsibilities, roles, and legal requirements.

"We don't have a boss we report to," Nimmo said. "There are lots and lots of laws that govern us. For example, if you're in an elected school board member you have to get continuing education credits, like many other professions."

Nimmo, who is assistant attorney general for the Cherokee Nation, said that by law, board members have to acquire a certain number of hours on the governance of school boards, and conflict of interest forms have to be filled out every year. Measures like this help to make sure there is oversight of the people in these volunteer positions.

Nimmo said one of the biggest parts of the group's job is hiring and evaluating the superintendent and approving budgets and policies. While the board has oversight of the superintendent, Nimmo said, the day-to-day operations of the district are left to the superintendent.

Tahlequah Public School Superintendent Tanya Jones said each board member is chosen by the constituents from the ward in which they live.

"They give up their own time and their own effort to serve the students and families of a school district," Jones said.

Board members do not receive compensation for their duties, Jones said, as it is a community service.

"I want to thank our board members because they serve," Jones said. "I think some people are under the impression that this is a paid gig. It is not."