The Oklahoma State School Boards Association is hosting five virtual information sessions for Oklahomans interested in serving on a local school board.  The first three “So You Want to be a School Board Member?” sessions – at 6 p.m. Oct. 24, noon Nov. 15 and 6 p.m. Nov. 30 – are free and open to anyone who wants to learn more about school board service. […]

All-State School Board Awards Distinguished Service Awards   OSSBA recently honored five school board members from across Oklahoma as this year’s 2023 All-State School Board, recognizing their outstanding service to their communities, school district and state. Combined, this year’s honorees have served more than 10 decades as locally elected civil leaders. OSSBA is proud to […]

A longtime school board member from Pauls Valley Public Schools will serve as president of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association for the next year. Joe Don Looney has served on the Pauls Valley school board since 2004, currently serving as its president.   “School board members understand that our state’s future leaders are in today’s […]

Annual OSSBA Survey Tracks Teacher Shortage Challenge A new survey shows the struggle to recruit and retain educators in Oklahoma is reaching new levels.  Oklahoma schools reported 1,019 teaching vacancies as the 2022-2023 school year began even as they are on pace to employ record numbers of emergency certified teachers and plan to expand the […]

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association selected two organizations that exhibited a strong commitment to their school districts and public education as the recipients of the 2022 Barbara Lynch Community Partner Award – North Tulsa Community Education Task Force and Seaboard Foods. Both organizations exhibited extraordinary passion for their school districts, providing outreach opportunities, furthering […]

Collins, Snell, Humphrey, Lewis, Gowin recognized for dedication to public education The Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) has selected five Oklahoma school board members, who demonstrated outstanding service to their local school boards and communities, to be a part of the 2022 All-State School Board.   The honorees are Kandy Collins, Verdigris; Andrew Snell, Locust […]

By Brandon Carey  OSSBA Staff Attorney On May 7, 2021, the Oklahoma governor signed House Bill 1775, which included a detailed list of what teachers can’t teach in an Oklahoma classroom regarding race and sex. Fortunately for educators and for school districts, the toxic rhetoric around the bill bore little resemblance to the actual bill language.  Coming […]

Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, statement on passage of Senate Bill 229:   “SB 229 is a monumental bill years in the making. Oklahoma is one of only four states that fails to provide state funding to help schools with capital needs, and our state has notable equity gaps in student access to quality, […]

OSSBA Executive Director Shawn Hime offered the following statement on today’s state budget actions: “Today’s budget news is deeply concerning for education leaders, and I want to be clear: This is the worst possible time to earmark money for special projects or try to score political brownie points. Gov. Stitt had the opportunity today to take a strong […]

Oklahoma’s persistent education investment gap will narrow thanks to more than $900 million in state investments in public school students and a strong economy in recent years, but the state will likely remain last in the region on what it spends per student for at least the next few years.  A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics analyzes data from the 2016-2017 school year to detail state-by-state […]