LOCAL & STATE
John Neal
Illustration, The Oklahoma Eagle
Open Meeting Act Violation Alleged
Two Tulsa Public School Board members are moving forward with a lawsuit alleging that other TPS school board members violated Oklahoma’s Open Meeting Act. The suit could eventually have a major impact on how the TPS board conducts meetings.
Jennettie Marshall, TPS District 3 representative, and E’Lena Ashley, District 4 representative, filed the lawsuit in January claiming that actions in 2023 by the majority of the board related to then Superintendent Deborah Gist’s resignation and her severance agreement and the appointment of then senior TPS administrator Ebony Johnson as her replacement were unlawful.
The lawsuit has reached the trial scheduling phase. While parties have clarified their positions on issues before the court, Tulsa County Court Judge Doug Drummond[JG1] has made several critical pre-trial rulings.
One of Drummond’s key decisions was removing Superintendent Ebony Johnson as a defendant in the lawsuit. The principal plaintiffs had sought to tie Johnson and Gist to the alleged wrongdoing.
Drummond ruled on June 21, 2023, in the state District Court of Tulsa, that he was dismissing Johnson as a defendant without a hearing or further court proceedings. TPS attorneys sought this action in a court filing arguing that the “public body,” defined in the Open Meeting Act, “does not include superintendents or employees.”
Plaintiffs Marshall and Ashley are represented by Tulsa attorney Maria Seidler. A frequent critic of the board, Seidler warned the TPS Board at their Dec. 11, 2023, meeting that a lawsuit would likely be forthcoming. A common theme in the initial January 18, 2024 filing was that decisions of the TPS board were made secretly as part of a “backroom” deal and violated the Open Meeting Act. (See https://theokeagle.com/2024/01/19/lawsuit-deepens-rifts-on-the-tulsa-school-board/)
The Act requires deliberations and actions of a public body, e.g., a local school board, to be made in a public meeting, including public notifications and other requirements.
The Oklahoma Eagle, through the court filings, judge’s decisions, public records, and TPS response to an Open Records Request, is seeking to provide our readers with a much clearer picture of what happened and what is alleged.
Gist’s resignation and Johnson’s interim appointment
Under intense pressure from Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, Deborah Gist announced on Aug. 22, 2023, that she was resigning as TPS district superintendent. She also announced that the board would take up her recommendation that Ebony Johnson be named interim superintendent. A special meeting of the TPS school board was posted for the next day.
In the lawsuit filing, the plaintiffs allege that “Defendants President Woolley and Gist had worked with lawyers to negotiate a mutual separation agreement and an agreement for Defendant Johnson to become interim superintendent without any deliberation of the entire Board.”
The Oklahoma Eagle made an expansive request for public records reflecting any deliberations and communications among board members, Gist, and Johnson about these matters before the board meeting. The TPS response to the Eagle’s official Open Records Request (ORR) provided no evidence that any such deliberations or internal communications occurred.
While the ORR response is not part of the official court records, it seems to support Marshall’s and Ashley’s contention that they and other board members first saw these agreements at the special meeting. In two separate documents the Eagle obtained, Gist said that prior to the meeting, she was “in discussions with our school board to leave my position as superintendent.” Separately, she referred to the “board’s plan to act upon the approval of Dr. Johnson as interim superintendent.”
At the special Aug. 23, 2023, meeting, the board voted to approve the detailed “Mutual Separation Agreement” for Gist and Johnson’s “Contract of Employment for the Interim Superintendent of Schools.” Gist and Johnson signed their agreements that same day.
Johnson named permanent superintendent
In contrast to the TPS board’s August decision, there is extensive public dialogue of what transpired at the Dec. 11, 2023 meeting when Johnson was named permanent superintendent over the dissent of Marshall and Ashley. Weeks before the meeting, Board President Stacey Woolley convened an ad hoc committee to consider a national search for a permanent superintendent.
Five of the seven members of the TPS board were aware of the committee’s existence, and three of these same five constituted the committee. Jennettie Marshall, Stacey Woolley, and Susan Lampkin served on the ad hoc committee. However, board members’ opinions on what transpired diverge wildly, and the differences are reflected in plaintiff and defendant court filings.
Marshall and Ashley contend in a court filing, “Woolley again tried to manipulate the Board’s own policies” and “abuse her authority over the agenda” to promote Johnson to permanent status as TPS superintendent.
They allege the behavior and events encompassing the board’s actions before and including the approval votes violate the Open Meeting Act (OMA) and constitute an “unlawful hire.”
In response, TPS attorneys categorically deny any wrongdoing. They assert, in part, that the ad hoc committee was a “discussion group” that never “rose to the level of being a public body under the OMA.”
Highlights of lawsuit status
The Oklahoma Eagle has pinpointed the key points of Judge Drummond’s June 21, 2024 order pertaining to the plaintiff’s allegations of intentional violation of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. They include the following:
- Dismissed Ebony Johnson as a defendant.
- Allowed the lawsuit to move forward against TPS as a public body, not individuals making up the public body.
- Stated the sole remedy of an action taken by the school district in willful violation of this Act shall be the invalidation of that action.
- Instructed the plaintiffs any evidence of a criminal misdemeanor should be presented to the Tulsa County District Attorney.
- Required the parties to submit an agreed upon [trial] scheduling order by July 3, 2024.
