Western Heights school district rejects Oklahoma authority, appoints own superintendent Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoman
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A struggle for control of Western Heights Public Schools has ensued, as both the local school board and the Oklahoma State Department of Education have chosen leaders to run the district.
The Western Heights Board of Education spurned the state s choice for an interim superintendent and appointed its own on Thursday.
This was the school board s first action acknowledging its former superintendent, Mannix Barnes, isn t able to continue as the district s head. The Oklahoma State Board of Education suspended Barnes superintendent certification last month.
By: Barry Mangold
OKLAHOMA CITY -
The board of education at Western Heights Public Schools voted to appoint an interim superintendent Thursday, days after the state appointed their own interim superintendent for the embattled school district.
“Now we have essentially two superintendents,” said Briana Flatley, the sole board member to vote ‘no’ on the measure.
The board, led by President Robert Everman, voted 3-1 to appoint Kimberly Race, the district’s assistant superintendent, as interim superintendent after Mannix Barnes was forced out of the position by the Oklahoma State Board of Education last month.
Everman, Linda Farley, and Rosalind Cravens voted for Race’s appointment. Board member Robert Sharp was not present for Thursday’s meeting.
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State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister warned the school district on Wednesday against destroying any internal records.
The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector s Office is about to begin an investigative audit of Western Heights finances from Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020. Additionally, the (Oklahoma State Department of Education) has received information, photographs, and video clips indicating the District s apparent destruction by shredding of a large volume of paper documents, Hofmeister wrote in a letter to the district.
Brianna Dodd, a Western Heights district resident, said she found about 15 bags of destroyed documents in a dumpster behind the district administration building on Monday, the same day the state Board of Education took control of the district.
The Oklahoma State Board of Education recently voted to take over operations of Western Heights Public Schools, but the district plans to name its own superintendent after the state already picked up.Shortly before the board of education announced Monty Guthrie would take over as the district s new leader, Western Heights Public Schools officials said they would announce their own superintendent during Thursday s meeting. It s a decision that State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister calls inappropriate. Inappropriate and continued disregard for the authority of the state board of education, Hofmeister said.She told KOCO 5 the time for Western Heights Public Schools officials to make a decision on who would replace Mannix Barnes as superintendent should have been before the end of the district s probationary period. Just an inappropriate step and would not be valid â any decisions that are made in that meeting and certainly not recognized, Hofmeister said. They don t possess