State Board of Education passes on Edmond district accreditation decision after lawsuit

One day after being sued by the Edmond Public Schools district, the Oklahoma State Board of Education declined Wednesday to put an action item about the situation on its publicly posted agenda for its regularly scheduled February meeting.

Meanwhile, one of the state Legislature’s key educational figures, Rep. Mark McBride, said the issue at the center of the Edmond case involved local control and that state Attorney General Gentner Drummond already weighed in on that issue months ago.

That’s what the district said in its lawsuit, which came after district officials said the Oklahoma State Department of Education threatened to lower Edmond's accreditation over a dispute about books in the libraries of the district’s three high schools.

In its lawsuit, the district asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to decide whether the state board or a local, elected school board has the authority to establish policies concerning books in the district’s libraries.

In March 2023, the state board adopted a proposal by Walters to ban “pornographic” materials from school libraries. The district argues the rules didn’t go into effect, because they were disapproved by the Legislature. Gov. Kevin Stitt later approved them anyway.

District Superintendent Angela Grunewald said Tuesday the lawsuit was filed after the Education Department threatened to have the state board lower Edmond's accreditation at an upcoming meeting on Thursday because two books, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls and “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, are in the libraries of the district’s three high schools.

“The Glass Castle” spent more than seven years on The New York Times’ Best Seller list and has received multiple awards. “The Kite Runner” spent more than two years on the same list and has been praised by former first lady Laura Bush, among others. Both books, however, do appear in the top 20 on the American Library Association’s list of Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books from 2010-2019.

Edmond district wants Supreme Court to determine the issue

The Edmond district wants the state Supreme Court to assume original jurisdiction of the lawsuit against the Education Department, the state board and state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who leads both the Education Department and the state board. It also asked the court to issue “a writ of prohibition” that would prevent the state board “from proceeding further” against the district.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the court set a hearing in the case before a court referee on March 5. That hearing is to determine if the court will grant an emergency request by the Edmond district for a stay of proceedings. The hearing won't affect the merits of the case. It's unclear when the court might make a decision.

In its order, the court told Walters, the OSDE and the state board to respond to the district's application for a stay of proceedings before the board by March 1. It also gave the three defendants until March 15 to respond to the district's application for the Supreme Court to assume original jurisdiction in the case and the district's request for declaratory and injunctive relief.

Also filed with the court Wednesday was a letter written to the Supreme Court justices by Randy Santosa, who identified himself in the document as an "Edmond School Parent." In the letter, Santosa said "(t)he two books present in Edmond Public Schools with pornography are given to minor children ... by adult teachers for required reading in 10th grade English class at all 3 high schools" within the district.

"This issue is specifically about minor children ... having access and required to read books with descriptions of sexual acts and depictions of sexual conduct taking place that are required reading," Santosa said in the letter. He also said Grunewald "has ignored every parent's complaint about these books for years."

The state board is set to meet at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, meaning by law its agenda had to be posted by that time Wednesday. It did not include an item about the Edmond district’s accreditation, and Edmond district spokesman Jeff Bardach said the district had been informed by the Education Department it did not need to have its representatives appear at the meeting.

More: Edmond Public Schools asks state Supreme Court to rule on library issue with Ryan Walters

The Edmond district argues that any decisions about what books should be used in libraries or curriculum should rest solely with the local school board. The Education Department, citing rules the state board passed last March, believes otherwise.

The department sent the district a letter, dated Jan. 19, informing the district about complaints it had received about the two books. The letter, signed by the department's general counsel, Bryan Cleveland, said the books had been reviewed by the agency’s Library Media Advisory Committee. The only publicly identified member of that committee is Chaya Raichik, a New York woman behind the conservative “Libs of TikTok” social media account.

Despite numerous requests from numerous media outlets, the Education Department has declined to release the identity of any other members of that board.

What did the letter from the Education Department to Edmond Public Schools say?

In the letter, Cleveland said the committee “recommended that both books qualify as sexualized content within the meaning of the rule and that the books are not appropriate before age 18.” Walters, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the Edmond district was “doubling down to keep pornography on the bookshelves.” Grunewald emphatically said during an earlier news conference that, “(w)e do not have pornography in our classrooms and our libraries at Edmond Public Schools.”

When The Oklahoman asked Wednesday if the Education Department had sent letters similar to the one sent to Edmond to other districts, agency spokesman Dan Isett did not answer the question, but sent the following statement:

“Superintendent Walters is serious about getting porn out of schools,” Isett said. “Edmond Schools’ defense of sexual material in their libraries is a direct assault on the rights of parents in their own district.”

But McBride, R-Moore, said the Edmond district is well within its legal right to insist on local control on such an issue.

In February 2023, McBride asked Drummond for an official opinion about whether the “power vested in the State Board of Education to promulgate administrative rules absent specific statutory authorization” from the Legislature violate Article 5, Section 1 of the state Constitution. McBride also asked whether or not the state board’s ability “to adopt policies and make rules for operation of public schools in the state” — which is in statute but not the Constitution — an “overly broad delegation of legislative power to the executive branch of government?”

In a letter — but not an official opinion — Drummond’s office replied that the Legislature may delegate rulemaking authority to the board, but the law doesn’t authorize rulemaking on a specific subject or statute. It also said any rule promulgated using only the general “powers and duties” section of the law “is invalid and may not be enforced” by the state board or the Education Department.

Drummond's office did release an official opinion in April concerning McBride's request.

“It’s a local-control issue and I think the attorney general has answered that question,” McBride said Wednesday. “As a Republican, I believe in local control and not a nanny state.”

The Edmond district also received support from another large nearby district, as Jason Perez, the superintendent of Deer Creek Public Schools, issued a statement praising Edmond’s action.

“Every public school district in our state has a duly elected board of education, chosen by the patrons of their respective communities, to represent the interests and values of those they serve,” Perez said. “This level of local control is a right belonging to public school parents in Oklahoma and should not be undermined by any agency at the state level."

“When districts are not given the opportunity to intervene at the local level, it undermines these policies as well as the authority of the governing body elected by its community. We stand with Edmond Public Schools and encourage other boards, superintendents, teachers, parents and students to support their efforts. Our communities deserve local control and our school districts need the first opportunity to address issues as they arise.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma lawsuit could determine who makes decisions on library books