TULSA, Okla. — After State Superintendent Ryan Walters canceled a board of education meeting on August 28, members of the board scheduled their own meeting without him.
"I've never seen such a scuffle between the head of an agency, and the board."
WATCH: 'There are no games being played': Board of Education calls meeting without Superintendent Walters
That's what Bob Burke had to say, as the attorney currently representing the board members.
"The law says the superintendent can call a meeting, or a majority of the board can call a meeting," Burke said.
Chris van Dehende, Mike Tinney, Ryan Deatherage, and Becky Carson called for a meeting on Wednesday, September 3, at 10:00 am. Those four represent a majority of the board. Burke says the purpose is to hire a new attorney over the members.
"They don't want to scuffle with Superintendent Walters," Burke said. They have, behind the scenes, asked him to set a special meeting, and he has refused to do so. So, I wrote him saying look, I represent these four board members. They have a right under the law to call their own meeting, and they have done so."
We reached out to the board members, and heard back from van Dehende, who said simply "we just want to get back to the business of public education in Oklahoma."
We also reached out to Walters office, who sent us a statement saying "We are extremely disappointed that these board members are playing games with Oklahoma's education and children. It is hard to take them seriously when their clear intention is to distract from the outstanding work being accomplished at OSDE under the Walters administration."
We asked Burke for his thoughts.
"First of all, there's no outstanding work that can take place," Burke said. "There are no games being played by these four board members. I can assure that these four are well-meaning Oklahoman's, who only want there to be improvement in the public schools of the state."
Burke says Walters has until Tuesday morning to post about the meeting. If he doesn't respond, Burke says they'll take the request to the state Supreme Court.
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