OKCPS Reschedules Vote For Bond Oversight Committee

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) board voted to postpone an appointment to the Bond Citizens Oversight Committee on Monday, after members of the public spoke against appointing anyone who does not live in District 5 to represent the district on the committee.
The committee is charged with managing how bond funds are used in the district. Though the rules allow the board to appoint someone who either lives or works in the district, other members of the committee rallied residents to come to Monday’s board meeting to voice their concerns about appointing someone who does not live in the district, which includes much of Northeast Oklahoma City and Spencer.
“I am urging the board to not go forward with the current selection,” former District 5 appointee Shawtay Alexander told the board during the meeting. “I am a lifelong resident,” she said, noting that she is a former student of Star Spencer, and is currently employed in the district and parent to a student attending a school in the district.
“I don’t just live in District 5, I am shaped by it,” said Alexander. Schools in the district face unique challenges, and only someone who lives in the district would be aware of the needs and concerns district parents, she said at the meeting and in interviews leading up to the meeting.
Derrick Scobey, who also serves on the committee, said the person being considered for the position lives in the Western Heights district and works a few blocks within the boundaries of District 5.
“She works there, but she is not intimately involved with District 5,” Scobey told the board at the meeting. “These districts deserve authentic representation.”
The board voted to pull the item from that evening’s agenda and bring it back at a later date.