Delay in federal funding notices under Ryan Walters' administration prompts second dust-up this summer (2024)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Bixby’s superintendent has drawn the ire of State Superintendent Ryan Walters for going public about a significant delay in notices to schools about their federal funding allocations.

“What we’re trying to figure out is how much money we’re going to have, how we will divide it up based on the number of students at each site who qualify for Title I services and whether or not we will have the funding to pay for additional teachers, tutors, staff or resources, whatever the case may be,” said Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller.

The issue is not isolated to this one, large suburban school district.

Tulsa Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, as well as the Jenks, Sand Springs and Union districts all confirmed Wednesday that they, also, have yet to receive notice from the Oklahoma State Department of Education about their federal Title I allocations for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Each year, the federal government distributes billions of dollars in Title I grants for school districts based on the number of low-income children they serve. The funding is intended to help address those students’ extraordinary academic needs, with such things as more teachers, tutors and school counselors.

Christine Gonzales, director of federal programs at Union Public Schools, said: “It is very hard to plan when you don’t know your funding level ... The abnormality here is not having an allocation in August, when we’ve already had to rehire teachers for which we may not have the funding.”

Walters was called out by a lawmaker about the exact same delay on June 20, when he appeared before a legislative panel about a new report that put his handling of federal funds for public schools under a microscope.

At the time, state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, peppered Walters and his staff about why school districts are not being notified about their annual federal funding allocations as early in the summer as they were under all previous state superintendent administrations in recent memory.

Walters and his team responded that the process is a complicated one and that they have to wait for more information to determine how much charter schools and private schools will receive before calculating all other schools’ allocations.

Walters’ Chief Academic Officer Todd Loftin claimed to Provenzano that districts already knew their Title I allocations for the upcoming year at that point in June.

“They do know,” he told her.

“No, they don’t,” Provenzano responded

Provenzano told the Tulsa World on Wednesday that she herself called and spoke to a supervisor at the education department this week and was told nothing had been communicated to districts.

“I’ve heard concerns from more than 10 districts around Green Country that have not been notified even of their preliminary budget figures. School starts in two weeks,” Provenzano said.

“This supervisor in the Office of Title Services told me they will receive ‘roughly the same amount as last year.’ I asked, ‘When was that communicated to districts?’ She said it hadn’t been. It was very apparent to me that the office is understaffed and unable to even communicate properly.”

At the conclusion of Wednesday’s state Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, reporters asked Walters about a Sunday tweet from Miller, questioning when his district would receive its initial Title I allocation.

Walters accused the Bixby school leader of lying and attention-seeking.

“He’s a liar. I mean, he’s really a true embarrassment. He knows every year when he gets the Title I funds, and we’re dealing with all kinds of financial problems with his district that we’re hoping to address right now. So you know, Rob — Rob’s a clown and a liar. So he knows that,” Walters said. “Same time every year — at least late August. It’s the same way it’s been every year for, my team tells me, over a decade. So he knows that has been communicated to districts. Rob’s never reached out, never indicated there’s an issue. There’s not an issue. He made it up. So he wants his name in the press.”

Miller said his district has not had any financial issues other than trying to budget for the ‘24-’25 year without having a preliminary Title I figure to work with, particularly given that an additional Bixby school now qualifies for Title I supports. As recently as the 2022-2023 school year, he said, districts received a preliminary figure in the spring from OSDE about how much to expect in Title I funds.

“It’s just information,” he said. “While he (Walters) is correct about funding going out in late July or August, the difference is the preliminary numbers.”

Staff writer Melissa Jacques contributed to this report.

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