Dr. Jennettie Marshall Runs for Okla. State Superintendent, Ready for More Good Trouble

OKLAHOMA CITY — Dr. Jennettie Marshall won a resounding victory in the Democratic primary on June 16, winning 58% of the vote to become the party’s nominee for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in the general election scheduled for Nov. 3.
After eight years serving on the Tulsa Board of Education – during which she rooted out a pattern of corruption that has already sent one person to jail and continues to result in additional charges as part of an ongoing investigation – Marshall is running to bring that same level of integrity to the statewide Department of Education. And she’s ready to get into some more “good trouble” in order to best serve her constituents.
While the voters were unambiguous in their support of Marshall for the state’s top office education office, some in the state Democratic Party leadership were less than thrilled – even vowing to support the Republican candidate instead of Marshall, who is the only African American candidate in the race.
Shortly after Marshall’s victory in the primary over El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Craig McVay, leaders in the state Democratic Party sent out an email message proclaiming their dismay that voters chose the “divisive” Marshall over “beloved educator” McVay.
McVey said he would endorse the Republican candidate in November’s general election.
“I know that’ll disappoint some of the Democrats, but he’s the best man for the job, and I hope he wins in August, and I hope he’s the next state superintendent,” McVay told reporters after his Democratic primary loss.
Marshall said she was asked to run for State Superintendent by many of the same people who had asked her to run for Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education – and for the same reason.
“You have integrity, and our district needs to be cleaned up,” her constituents told her, said Marshall.
“This is the problem: You’ve heard the old adage, be careful what you ask for. I don’t know anybody that when they sweep the floor, they pick out the good parts of the trash. When you start sweeping, you clean it all up. And I did not discriminate in uncovering the deception and the misappropriation of public funds.
“I didn’t care if you were someone’s cousin or someone’s friend, someone’s baby mama, those were not criteria for my decision in uncovering criminal activity of the district,” Marshall continued. “When you do that, when you speak out, you speak up, and you stand up, and you get in good trouble, you become ‘divisive.’”
Marshall’s background is primarily in law enforcement and the ministry. She served 17 years as a Probation and Parole Officer and case manager with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, and three years as a Child Welfare Investigator with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
She’s also been preaching, teaching and serving congregations throughout the state for more than 32 years. Founding Pastor of Living Sanctuary Evangelistic Ministries, Dr. Marshal has also served as a Chaplain for the Tulsa Police Department. She started Reclaim, Inc., a nonprofit that helps struggling Tulsans navigate a better future.
Dr. Marshall’s diverse careers are a result of her education that includes Associate’s degrees in Political Science (Tulsa Junior College) and Funeral Service (Dallas Institute); Bachelors of Science in Corrections (Langston University); Masters of Science in Management (Southern Nazarene University, Bethany), Masters of Religious Arts in Divinity and Doctorate of Pastoral Psychology from Integrity Seminary (Waxahachie) after also attending Phillips Theological Seminary and Oral Roberts University (both in Tulsa).
So when she elected to serve on the board for Tulsa Public Schools (TPS), it didn’t take long for her to notice something was amiss with the money. Funds were disappearing, and no one could explain where they went. Items would appear and disappear on the agenda. Contracts were not bid properly, and were often awarded under the shadow of conflict of interest. Too many explanations didn’t make sense.
Marshall asked for an audit. Gov. Kevin Stitt ordered State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd to conduct the audit in July 2022.
The audit is still ongoing, but earlier this year Byrd’s office released a report which found more than $25 million in payments from 2015 to 2023 violated state bidding procedures. The audit found more than $860,000 in unauthorized spending, including $421,000 paid to an interior design consultant. Conflicts of interest were rampant, with one board member voting to approve a $390,000 contract to a nonprofit where her husband was the executive director and her employer was a subcontractor.
Shortly after the audit began, Devin Fletcher, a TPS administrator, resigned. He later pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzlement and was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.
In June of this year, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler announced that another former Tulsa Public Schools executive and two others have been charged with 27 counts of conspiracy, embezzlement and kickbacks. The charges stemmed from a scheme that paid more than $779,000 in school funds for roofing projects for which no work was done.
The findings of the audit came as no surprise to Marshall, who had been sounding the alarm for years.
“For eight years I kept hearing, you have to go to the Board of Education and ask for more money,” Marshall said. “How can I go ask for more money when I’m not being a good steward of the money that I have?”
The state Board of Education had also been plagued by questionable financial practices under former State Superintendent Ryan Walters, Dr. Marshall noted.
“We need to make sure we have guardrails so that won’t continue,” she said, “but above that, we need to ensure that every superintendent, every school board has everything that they need that they don’t feel pushed to do things like that. And that’s where collaborative partnerships in education will move us from 50th to the Top 10.”