Month: November 2023

Tuesday November 14th: Many counties across the state will have an election next week on November 14th. These votes span a number of topics such as propositions, bonds, city council, mayoral elections and more. Check and see if your county has an election here. You can vote early on November 9th or 10th from 8 AM – 6 PM at your local county election board.

December 12th: This election includes the general election for State Senate District 32 and the primary election for State Representative District 39.

For State Senate District 32, OKHPR has endorsed Dusty Deevers who received an A rating on his OKHPR Candidate Survey. Senate District 32 covers Commanche county, including Elgin, Fletcher, Medicine Park, Cache, Indiahoma, and parts of Lawton and Fort Sill.

This election in particular is extremely important because it has the power to flip Senate leadership! A lot of RINO’s are willing to throw this seat to the democrat because Deever’s is such a liberty minded candidate.

Check out the interview with Dusty Deevers Democrat opponent, is this who you want representing Oklahomans at the State Capitol?

We are asking for everyone to donate $32 to Dusty Deevers for District 32! if $32 is out of your budget please donate $5-$10. Every dollar counts! You can donate to Dusty Deevers online here, or mail a check to 379 NE Miller Ave Elgin, OK 73538

State Representative District 39 will also be facing an election on December 12th. House District 39 covers Oklahoma county, including parts of Edmond. We will update more about this specific race next week!

If you saw this information from your schools newsletter would this capture your attention or would it properly inform you that this survey could reveal intimate details of your personal family life? (Source: Norman Public Schools had this information included at the bottom of their newsletter. Many parents did not see this notice and many are upset that they were not properly informed about opt out options).

We reported on this two years ago and now we are seeing the real world consequences! In 2021, Oklahoma Representatives Vancuren (Owasso), Davis (Broken Arrow) and Waldron (Tulsa) of the House and Haste (Broken Arrow) of the Senate worked to pass a law that mandates most public schools provide students with a survey regarding a variety of issues with a focus on alcohol, tobacco, other drug use, mental health, academic failure, and violence. This survey is being administered to public school children by the OK Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in the name of federal funding to our children. Even though students are allowed to opt-out, many students have felt pressured and parents are unaware that it is even going on. We need to fix this and need your help! 

Check out the surveys for yourself here. Would you feel comfortable with your 6th grader filling out this survey or your 8th, 10th, and 12th grader filling out this survey without your knowledge?

If this survey is concerning to you please contact your schools principal and ask about the opt out waiver.

Filing for the 2024 school board elections is in December 2023. Below is a list of seats up for election in the largest districts. This is not a complete list of school board openings! There are over 500 school districts in Oklahoma. If you google your local school district board, you should be able to tell which terms are expiring in 2024.

Local school board races are critical since school boards set many of the policies for local schools and select curriculum. If you have followed your local school board member’s votes and are concerned about the direction of policies, please consider running for school board. If your local school board member is doing a great job, please let him or her know. Being on the school board can be challenging as well as rewarding.

The 2024 school board candidate filing packet is available here.

TIMELINE for FILING
Resolution Due November 17, 2023
Statutory Filing December 4-6, 2023
Primary February 13, 2024
General April 2, 2024

TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

District 2, Diamond Marshall, registered Democrat. Appointed in March 2023.

District 5, John Croisant, registered Democrat. Won 6097 – 5530 in 2020.

District 6, Jerry Griffin, registered Republican. Won 3302 – 3272 in 2020. Griffin is not planning to run for re-election in 2024.

Board of Education – Independent School District No. 1 of Tulsa County, (tulsaschools.org)

Map of districts here.

OKLAHOMA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

District 3, Cary Pirrong, registered Democrat. Appointed 2022.

District 4, Mark Mann, registered Democrat. Had no opponent in 2020. Mann is currently running for State Senate 46.

Board of Education / Board Members (okcps.org)

Map of districts here.

EDMOND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

District 4, Cynthia Benson, registered Republican. Won 216-160 in 2014. No opponent in 2019.

Board of Education | Edmond Public Schools (edmondschools.net)

Map of districts here.

MOORE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

District 4, Staci Pruett, registered Republican. Won 52.9% in 2019 (471-183-156-81 four candidates).

Board of Education – Moore Public Schools (mooreschools.com)

Map of districts here.

BROKEN ARROW PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Zone 4, Brandy Roulet, registered Independent. Won 714-471 in 2019.

Broken Arrow Public Schools – Board of Education (baschools.org)

Map of districts here.

NORMAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Office 4, Chad Vice, registered Republican. Won 2200 – 1937 in 2019.

Board of Education / Board of Education Members (normanpublicschools.org)

Map of districts here.

PUTNAM CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Office 4, Charity Avery, registered Republican. No opponent in 2019.

Meet Our Board of Education | Putnam City Schools

Map of districts here.

Other Districts:

Asher Public School I-112 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Bethel Public School I-3 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Dale Public School I-2 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Earlsboro Public School I-5 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Grove Public School C-27 Office #3 Three (3) Year Term

Macomb Public School I-4 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Maud Public School I-117 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

McLoud Public School I-1 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

North Rock Creek School I-10 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Pleasant Grove School C-29 Office #3 Three (3) Year Term

Shawnee Schools I-93 Office #2 & #4 Four (4) Year Term

South Rock Creek C-32 Office #3 Three (3) Year Term

Tecumseh School I-92 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Wanette School I-11 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Harrah School I-7 Office #4 Four (4) Year Term

Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Konawa School I-4 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Little Axe School I-70 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Office #2 Three (3) Year Term

Meeker School I-95 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Prague School I-103 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Strother School I-1 Office #4 Five (5) Year Term

Eastern OK TC-23 Office #5 Five (5) Year Term

Mid America TC-8 Office #5 Five (5) Year Term

Gordon Cooper TC-5 Office #1 Five (5) Year Term

Recently, OKHPR was made aware that the former link to find vaccine exemptions on the State Department of Health website was now gone. We made sure a copy was available on our website and then got to work to find out what was going on.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health has made a number of changes to the vaccine exemption form. The biggest change is that now, instead of a parent turning in the exemption form into their school and then the school sending this form to the State Department of Health, parents are being told to send this form themselves to the State Department of Health who will then send it to the schools after it has been approved or denied.

Above is a copy of the 2nd page of the exemption form from 2016. To view page one full screen, please click here. to view page two full screen, please click here.

Above is a copy of the 2nd page of the newly updated 2023 exemption form. To view this form full screen, please click here.

Additionally, we recently found out that the Immunization Department had a backlog of exemptions and as a result one school in eastern Oklahoma did not get approval for two students so they DID NOT allow those students to attend and thus the students were suspended due to excessive absences. We are calling on Governor Stitt, who is head of this agency and the Oklahoma Legislature to take action on the exemption process which has been a part of state law since 1970.

Contact Governor Stitt and your State Legislators to ensure they are aware of these problems! Ask Governor Stitt and your State Legislator to go back to the more streamlined process of parents turning in the exemption to schools, and school submitting it to the Oklahoma Department of Health and allow students to attend school while awaiting “approval”.

OKHPR has already begun working on legislation ideas to streamline this process and make it nondiscriminatory. Make sure you are paying attention to future OKHPR newsletters and are signed up to receive OKHPR text alerts by texting #S(your district number) to 405-251-8915. For example, if you live in senate district 3 you would text #S3.