Soon-to-be SKPS Superintendent Castañeda’s Proximity to Malfeasance Can't be Ignored
OK Governor Stitt launched an audit of Tulsa Public Schools recently
In July 2022, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt launched an audit of Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) as a result of TPS Board Members urging his intervention. Hear him talk about the audit himself:
In full transparency, the “misuse of public funds” that Governor Stitt mentions is unclear. I’m not sure if there’s a conflation of the COVID relief funds he talks about right after that, or if it’s a separate incident involving improper payments to a cabinet-level position in the Tulsa Public Schools. Or he could be lumping both the improper payments and the COVID relief funds together as that “misuse of public funds”.
In July of 2022, Devin Fletcher, the Chief Talent and Equity officer at the time, resigned “pending investigation into claims that an Atlanta-based contractor made payments to district employees.” The company in question, Snickelbox, LLC, was under contract to “‘update and refine talent management practices’ in order to recruit and retain teachers.” After Fletcher’s resignation, then-Chief of Innovation Andrea Castañeda led the Talent and Equity office in the interim and was confirmed to the position earlier this year.
As listed on her resume, however, she did have a leadership role in COVID relief operations for TPS. The same $200 million in Federal COVID relief funds that Governor Stitt is explicitly talking about for the audit.
For a little more context, here’s a report from a local news station, KJRH.
It’s a little eyebrow-raising that the Governor calls for an audit, and relatively shortly after the audit starts, she finds a way out of the state.
For more recent context on the audit, in the TPS Board of Education meeting on February 27, 2023, Dr. Jerry Griffin, the Board Member for District 6, inquired about the audit and mentioned that the FBI is involved in the investigation. Everyone’s video pane is very small because they were transitioning to the public commentary portion of the video when Dr. Griffin began speaking but take a look at this clipped and captioned portion:
When Dr. Griffin asks for regular updates on the audit and agrees that these regular updates could consist of simply “we don’t know anything”, the Superintendent almost interrupts him and flippantly states “We don’t know anything.” To which, Dr. Griffin responded with “Put it on the agenda, Superintendent.”
As noted in the video above, at one point in the exchange, confirmed by a parent who witnessed it, Andrea Castañeda “made a face” at Dr. Griffin or in response to his request for information on the audit on a regular basis.
Dr. Griffin was obviously frustrated by the lack of professionalism by a senior member of the Superintendent’s cabinet (and now SKPS’s new “visionary” Superintendent - per Chair Ashley Carson-Cottingham quoting herself from a report by the Salem Reporter) and calls her on her behavior, starting before his microphone is turned on, “—face looks during the board meeting because she doesn’t agree with what I do. Supe—” His microphone was cut off before he could finish his sentence.
After his microphone was turned back on, he continued, “I want her [Superintendent Gist’s] staff to treat us as professionals. They may not like what we do, but they need to act like professionals.”
Later in the meeting, unrelated to the audit, but bearing directly on how Castañeda conducts herself in meetings, when discussing adding to a K-4 program called “College Bound”, Board Member Ms. E’Lena Ashley from District 4, was asking for the kids in the program to better master the program that’s currently in front of them. I have a low threshold for mundanity, so I might be imprecise in my description, but either way, Castañeda wasn’t having any of what Ms. Ashley was saying. She’s off-camera for the entire interaction, but listen to how she addresses an elected Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education Member:
She’s snippy and condescending. At times, she almost seems to be seething. When Ms. Ashley asks something that clearly is to prompt more information from Ms. Castañeda, Ms. Castañeda curtly responds with “I don’t think that was a question.” Ms. Ashley, clearly frustrated by the response, turns away throwing up her hands.
After restating what is obviously a question, the Superintendent steps in to reinterpret what Ms. Castañeda was actually trying to say to Ms. Ashley. So, we have a new Superintendent who can’t handle the slightest bit of questioning without turning combative, and can’t communicate clearly enough on her own that she needs someone else to reframe what she really meant.
She won’t have a superior to lean on to restate her message as Superintendent of Salem-Keizer Public Schools.
Congratulations, Salem-Keizer. You sure know how to pick ‘em. Or I should say, the 26% who turned out to vote in the last school board election sure know how to pick them. Those margins were so close, please don’t neglect your civic duty. Vote for sane people who will hold our school district and others on the school board accountable.