In an embarrassing display of irresponsible leadership, three Tulsa Public Schools board members choose personal grudges and political ideology over students and staff at Monday night's board meeting.
Board members Jerry Griffin, Jennettie Marshall and E'Lena Ashley blocked the passage of consent agenda items that would allow the district to pay utility bills, hire staff, buy gas for buses, renew the Reading Partners program and continue the Chinese program at Booker T. Washington High School. Their actions may deepen the teacher shortage crisis if those potential hires go elsewhere, with only weeks before school starts.
In addition, those three halted the process for the $6.2 million technology portion of the voter-approved bond package. Bonds are overseen by an independent volunteer citizen committee — outside TPS administration — in bids that are sealed to prevent favoritism or bias. The district may now end up with higher interest rates on those bonds.
The most disrespectful action came when the three walked out during a discussion about the consequences of the vote. That's not how engagement on issues works. Instead, Marshall told board member John Croisant to "shut up." In a school, that behavior would have landed them in the principal's office and detention. For a public school board, these actions cause direct harm to students.
If constituents want to see what the dismantling of public schools looks like, this meeting was a front-row seat. It's appalling and destructive to Tulsa. The motives of Griffin and Ashley are questionable, and both, at times, have aligned themselves with anti-public education partisan politics.
Griffin was elected two years ago and quickly formed an exploratory committee to run for state superintendent, which he did not pursue. He now is running for Tulsa City Council and appears to use his board position to generate headlines. Ashley, elected in April, has attended five board meetings and attracted controversy with anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ social media posts.
These members may have felt emboldened by a growing group of anti-public school activists showing up at each meeting. They are disruptors who focus on talking points from right-wing national commentators.
Our community needs elected representatives dedicated to solving problems, not creating them. We expect officials to work through differences for the greater good.
It is possible to be respectful while pushing for details and holding public administrators accountable. The basic job of a school board member is to keep schools operating. These members failed to do that. This type of petulant behavior creates board dysfunction that hurts students and schools they pledged to represent with integrity. It erodes the trust between them and staff, as well as the public. We thank the other board members for showing professionalism in the light of the childish reactions of those three members. We expect that they will lead the way to improve TPS.
Also, we encourage Griffin, Marshall and Ashley to reexamine their character, set aside the theatrics and do the job they were elected to do.
[Editorial / Tulsa World]
