Local Boards of Education and their administrators should be able to run their school districts without fear of reprisal from state officials.
We regularly provide coverage of several school board meetings. They seem capable of deciding issues that are within their responsibility to make.
Among the jobs of these local boards are to hire the best qualified superintendent possible and allow he or she to run the day-to-day operations.
Their duties also include setting policies, approving the budget and conducting other business as needed, overseeing that required guidelines are followed.
They expect their superintendent to recommend the hiring of other competent, qualified administrators, teachers and support staff without interfering in any of the daily processes to do that.
A sizable Oklahoma City metro area school district’s accreditation is being threatened by the State School superintendent because of its refusal to remove a couple of books from its libraries.
That district’s board has been forced to take legal action in the State Supreme Court so that it might preserve its accreditation. The district has sought a temporary injunction against State Supt. Ryan Walters and the State Board of Education.
Walters claims the books have sexual and pornographic content. The district refutes that saying no that’s not case.
But there is a fundamental principle here that goes far beyond the content of those two books. The state school superintendent shouldn’t be sticking his nose into this.
That’s an issue for the local board of education to be deciding if there’s any kind of issue at all.
When the state school superintendent begins looking over the shoulders of those in charge of a local school district, it diminishes the role of that local Board of Education and its administrators.
Local Board of Education members are voted in by their constituents, that is the school patrons of a respective district and that’s the way it should be.
By the same token, if board members aren’t living up to their responsibilities as school patrons think they should be, they can always be voted off the board.
We believe that board members and administrators know what best fits their district. They are going to be much more in touch with school patrons about what is needed, is acceptable and is appropriate for their students than some state official poking his nose in where it’s not wanted.
It’s our belief that local school boards are generally capable of making those decisions.