R YAN

W ALTERS
S TATE S UPERI NTENDENT of P UBLI C I NSTRUCTI ON
O KLAHOMA S TATE D EPARTMENT of E DUCATI ON

To: Members of the Oklahoma State Legislature

From: Ryan Walters, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Date: August 7, 2023
Re: Oklahoma State Department of Education Agency Assessment, Part 1

Executive Summary

I was sworn in as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction on January 9, 2023 and on that date
assumed direction of the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE). It is my intention to
inform members of the legislature of the flagrant negligence I observed upon taking office. This
report outlines the wasteful behaviors, failures, and overall abysmal state of OSDE under the
direction of former Superintendent Joy Hofmeister as well as the subsequent corrective actions of
my administration.

Part one of this assessment covers egregious examples of the lack of accountability, oversight, and
general mismanagement of the agency under Joy Hofmeister’s leadership. My administration has
uncovered the following serious issues in our first six months at OSDE:

• Lack of centralized accountability and oversight on agency purchases resulting in contracts

that violate the Central Purchasing Act
• A backlog of teacher revocation hearings that were never completed, including teachers
who were accused of sexual crimes against minors, and in one case, murder
• Hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasteful spending on unused equipment and
inefficiencies
• A series of mistakes in the Federal Programs division that, left uncovered, would have left
taxpayers on the hook for paying back $31M
• A 54% increase in employees over Superintendent Hofmeister’s 8 years in office, growing
the bureaucracy of the agency and nearly doubling the cost of employee salaries from $19M
to $37M annually
• Major errors in the calculation of A-F report cards due to lack of processes and procedures,
putting federal Title funds at risk
• A coordinated assault on my administration by the former Chief of Staff who worked with
current employees and the media to plant false stories, and who went to disturbing lengths
to hide his communications during his last 6 months at OSDE

While certain members of the legislature have continued to spread baseless rumors about my
management of the agency, I have diligently worked to clean up the utter chaos and waste I
inherited. The issues covered in part one of this report only scratch the surface of the problems at
OSDE. Rest assured that I will continue to improve and transform OSDE into an agency that serves
parents, teachers, and students and is a good steward of taxpayer dollars. Under my leadership, all
students will receive the best education possible.

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Lack of Procurement Oversight

The former administration had no regard for the Central Purchasing Act, nor were they concerned
with oversight of agency procurement. Agency purchases were routinely rubberstamped without
oversight or approval by the former Chief of Staff or Superintendent Hofmeister. The previous
administration failed to act appropriately on multiple Request for Proposal (RFP) expectations
from OMES, resulting in $17M+ in sole-source contracts. The lack of action on these contracts put
the new administration in a position to extend additional sole sources or put the agency at
significant risk.

My administration has worked closely with OMES Central Purchasing and Information Services to
evaluate the sole-source contracts that had to be extended due to lack of preparedness by the
former administration. I am requiring all sole-source contracts to go to RFP within the next fiscal
year. The current Chief of Staff approves all agency purchases, and I personally approve all
expenditures over $1000 to ensure proper oversight over all OSDE purchases.

Legal Investigation Backlog

The previous administration failed to complete license revocation hearings for teachers accused of
serious crimes including molestation, sexual assault, and rape of minors, and in one case, first-
degree murder. Some of these cases have been pending since at least 2019, leaving the new
administration to gather evidence and hold hearings on cases that are over 4 years old. Nineteen
such dockets and investigations have been found to be incomplete and unresolved (see Exhibit 1 for
case descriptions) and an additional 20 had no apparent action.

Under my leadership, OSDE has taken action to accumulate evidence and schedule hearings to
complete the license revocation hearings left to languish by the previous administration. We will
ensure that all Oklahoma students are safe from those who would do them harm.

Waste

The previous administration were extremely poor stewards of taxpayer dollars as evidenced by
millions of dollars in inefficiencies and waste, all while asking the legislature for increased
appropriations every year. Below are several examples of the big-spending mentality that plagued
OSDE during the previous administration:

• Purchased non-OMES managed Mac products, resulting in more than $100K in currently
unusable (“bricked”) devices until recovery is complete
• Software licenses were not managed or consolidated into any record and could be
purchased ad hoc instead; $25,000 in immediate Zoom and Adobe Pro software savings
have already been identified
• Mobile Device and Wireless Hot Spot (Mi-Fi) devices were active for up to 2 years despite
sitting in a box in the basement at a cost of $40 per month per line
o Immediate savings of $17,000 annually in service reductions

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 • Over 20 InContact licenses were purchased for employees to cover the front desk
receptionist’s breaks at a cost of $55K annually. We have routed these duties to existing
customer service representatives and cancelled the duplicative licenses.
• Purchased over $36,000 of video and sound equipment, where it was stored unused,
unorganized, and unmanaged in the Hodge building basement (see Exhibit 2). An agency of
less than 400 people has no need for rooms full of tripods, projectors, cameras, lenses,
microphones, speakers, and soundboards.

My administration has implemented an asset management system in order to create a record of the
devices owned by the agency. We have cancelled duplicative licenses and unused Mi-Fi lines to
realize immediate cost savings. We will continue to eliminate waste and inefficiencies at the agency
and ensure that taxpayer dollars go to fund education, rather than expensive tech equipment that
gathers dust in a basement.

Mistakes in Federal Programs

The Federal Programs division made several mistakes that if not discovered would have resulted in
Oklahoma taxpayers footing a $31M bill. In one case, the previous administration used the wrong
data to calculate maintenance of equity, a federal requirement of Covid-related funds. Fortunately,
my administration checked the calculations before they were submitted to the federal government,
or OSDE would have owed $27M to be in compliance with maintenance of equity requirements.
Additionally, another miscalculation, again using the wrong data, resulted in under-allocated ESSER
funds, shorting districts by $4M. Finally, a third miscalculation caused one charter school to be
over-funded, requiring them to pay back $547K.

My administration has installed an experienced leadership team to get the federal programs
division back on track. We have executed corrections to the ESSER formulas so that districts now
have the correct allocation amounts. We will continue to create documented policies and
procedures so that mistakes are eliminated.

Staffing Increase and Inefficient Organizational Structure

The previous administration created unprecedented bureaucratic bloat: a 54% increase in OSDE
employees from 275 to 409 and ballooning personnel costs from $19M annually to $37M annually
(see Exhibit 3). In calendar year 2022 alone, 49 brand new positions were created within the
agency (a 10% increase in employees), with more than $2.2M in new staff salary burden.
Additionally, 146 major staffing transactions occurred outside of the new positions, which resulted
in an additional $745K in annual staff expenditures. Despite the uncontrolled increase in personnel
spend, Superintendent Hofmeister lobbied the legislature for 12% across-the-board pay raises,
with no consideration of employee performance or market-based salary adjustments.

The previous administration put in place an inefficient organizational structure that spread
decision-making across the agency and inhibited any form of executive oversight or accountability.
For example, the agency was rife with inflated job titles that did not align with state standards.
There were 45 Executive and Assistant Executive Directors out of 409 employees (see Exhibit 3), all

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of whom had final say in their departments’ expenditures. OSDE’s executive directors made up 45%
of the total roles titled “executive director” in the state.

My administration immediately implemented a hiring freeze and identified a $1.3M savings in
personnel expenditures during my first 3 months in office. My administration also initiated a
complete reorganization of the agency to eliminate communication silos. The reorganization also
included job title alignment such that agency job titles now align with state standards. We have
evaluated the skillsets and qualifications of division administrators, promoting underutilized
internal talent and recruiting qualified external individuals.

Failure in A-F Report Cards

Oklahoma’s Title funds from the federal government are contingent upon meeting federal
accountability reporting requirements. The previous administration’s grave errors and delays put
Title funding at risk. The previous administration made several calculation errors in the A-F report
card process. Superintendent Hofmeister’s team removed the most experienced employee from the
report card process and promoted an employee who did not meet the minimum job qualifications
to lead the accountability division. The resulting mistakes caused by the previous administration’s
poor decisions caused districts to have to review their data on three separate occasions, taking
away staff’s valuable time that should have been spent on children’s education to check numbers in
a spreadsheet. These mistakes were so severe that all data had to be re-checked and recalculated.
Report cards were delayed nearly 6 months. Because federal designations for additional school
supports are driven by report card data, the designations were also delayed 6 months, leaving
schools very little time to implement improvement plans that would raise student performance.

My administration has installed qualified, experienced employees to run the state’s accountability
system. OSDE is on track to have the earliest release of report cards ever; providing parents and
districts valuable data to inform their decision-making and make sure that Oklahoma’s Title funds
are never at risk.

Agency Leaks and Sabotage

OSDE’s former Chief of Staff has waged an all-out assault on the Walters administration by planting
media stories. He has repeatedly solicited information from current employees and has coordinated
with now-former employees as evidenced by text messages and confidential agency emails
forwarded to his personal email address (see Exhibit 4).

• Leaked agency documents

o The former Chief of Staff has personally contacted several current OSDE employees
fishing for information to leak to media sources to distract from the improvements
Superintendent Walters is making to OSDE. In one text message exchange, he refers
to Superintendent Walters as “LH,” which stands for “Little Hitler” according to
individuals who witnessed him using the phrase. He also expresses his intense
disdain for Superintendent Walters as “a true POS [piece of sh**] in every way.”
o During the transition, the former Executive Director of Communications forwarded
confidential agency emails to the former Chief of Staff’s personal email address.

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 • Deleted emails
o During the last 6 months of Superintendent Hofmeister’s term, Phil Bacharach sent
only 7 emails according to the contents of his SDE email account. Upon closer
examination, it is clear that he deleted over 1,000 emails that he sent during this
time period. All government communications are considered open records, and Phil
Bacharach made a conscious decision to attempt to erase them. He targeted the last
6 months of communications for deletion, which corresponds with the ramp up of
Superintendent Hofmeister’s failed gubernatorial campaign.
• Open Records Requests (ORR)
o OSDE saw an immediate 127% increase in ORRs from December 2022 to January
2023 and a 35.6% month-over-month increase.
o The majority of the ORR requests have shifted from Public Interest under Joy
Hofmeister to Media Inquiry under Superintendent Walters.

I will always advocate for government transparency. There is a process in place for media requests
and ORRs that must be followed to ensure that all sensitive information is redacted prior to release.
If this process is not properly followed it puts the agency at dire legal risk given the federal
protections required of education-related information.

Conclusion

Despite the mess I inherited from the previous administration, I have taken action to make OSDE
the most efficient and transparent state agency so that we can best serve parents, teachers, and
kids. I have ensured that all contracts flowing through OSDE are aligned with the Central
Purchasing Act and installed executive oversight on all agency purchases. I have created a system to
deal with the backlog of teacher revocation hearings to keep our kids safe from individuals who
would seek to do them harm. I have installed experienced leadership who know how to keep the
agency in compliance with federal regulations so that Oklahoma’s federal funding is never at risk. I
have eliminated waste and will continue to realize cost savings so that Oklahoman’s hard-earned
tax dollars directly support our kids’ education rather than fund bureaucracy and big government. I
will continue to keep the legislature informed of my progress in transforming OSDE on our path to
making Oklahoma number 1 in public education.

Sincerely,

Ryan Walters
State Superintendent of Public Instruction

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 Exhibit 1 – Legal Backlog

The table below contains the case numbers and descriptions of the accusations made against
teachers. The previous administration did not hold revocation hearings for these cases.

2019
2019-14 Charged with drugging and raping his sister-in-law, molesting 16-y/o niece
2019-20 Baseball coach traded nudes and had sex with student(s).
Daughter attests he molested her and coworkers allege he made advances to
2019-22 people and children at school.
2019-25 Charged with second degree rape of student.
2019-29 Inappropriate relationship with 18 year old student. Alleged rape.
2019-32 Accused of touching students inappropriately in the weight room.
2020
Teacher accused of inappropriate relations and charged with 6 counts of lewd
2020-01 molestation
2020-04 Teacher/coach accused of inappropriate comments, touching, behavior.

2020-10 Charged with 7 counts of A&B on students and 10 counts of Lewd Molestation.
2020-12 Caught taking photos of students' butts.
2021
2021-03 Teacher/coach accused of molesting students when they pulled their groin.
Charged with two counts of Lewd/Indecent proposals to a child under 16.
2021-09 Messaged and met up with students through Facebook.
2021-12 1st Degree Murder case. Husband was victim.
Charged with two counts of Rape by Instrumentation, 3 counts of Sexual
Battery, 4 counts of LEWD OR INDECENT ACTS TO CHILD UNDER 16, and one
2021-13 count of attempted rape.
Teacher sexually assaulted students and threatened to kill their family if they
2021-14 told.
Teacher charged with maintaining place for keeping/selling controlled
substances, child neglect, and unlawful possession of cds with intent to
2021-15 distribute.
2021-18 Teacher and her husband produced child pornography.
2021-19 Charged with DV - Assault & Battery by Strangulation, a felony charge
2021-22 Consistently made inappropriate comments around students.

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 Exhibit 2 – Equipment Waste

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 Exhibit 3

The first table below shows staff size and salary comparisons from Superintendent Hofmeister’s
first and last year and Superintendent Walters first year in office so far. The second table contains a
list of all executive director positions.

OSDE Comparison Hofmeister - Walters

FTEs Total Salary Cost

First year in office
Hofmeister 1/12/2015-12/31/2015 265 $ 19,405,510.19
Last year in office
Hofmeister 1/1/2022-1/8/2023 409 $ 37,480,048.09
First year in office
Walters 1/9/2023-7/31/2023 385 $ 21,994,836.95

Note: The salary costs for Hofmeister are for a full 12 months while the
salary cost for Walters are for 7 months.

Co Agency Position Job Title Working Title
265 Education Department 26500626 Assistant Deputy Superintenden Assist. Dpty Supt of School Su
265 Education Department 26500433 Assistant Deputy Superintenden Assist. Dpty Supt of School Su
265 Education Department 26500347 Deputy Chief of Operations Assistant Chief of Operations
265 Education Department 26500266 Assistant Executive Director Assistant Executive Director
265 Education Department 26500226 Assistant Executive Director Assistant Executive Director
265 Education Department 26500100 Assistant Executive Director Assistant Executive Director
265 Education Department 26500573 Assistant Executive Director Assistant Executive Director o
265 Education Department 26500714 Assistant Deputy Superintenden Asst Dpty Supt of Assess/Accou
265 Education Department 26500616 Assistant Executive Director Asst Exec Dir Sch Safety & Sec
265 Education Department 26500524 Assistant Executive Director Asst. Exec. Dir. of Account
265 Education Department 26500127 Assistant Executive Director Ast. Exec. Dir. of St. Assess
265 Education Department 26500244 Chief Executive Secretary Chief Executive Secretary
265 Education Department 26500317 Chief Financial Officer Chief Financial Officer
265 Education Department 26500711 Chief Administrative Officer Chief Innovation Officer
265 Education Department 26500308 Chief of Government Affairs Chief of Government Affairs
265 Education Department 26500416 Chief Chief of Heath Wellness and Co
265 Education Department 26500498 Chief Chief of High Performance Syst
265 Education Department 26500328 Chief Chief of Operations
265 Education Department 26500304 Chief of Staff - SDE Chief of Staff - SDE
265 Education Department 26500503 Deputy Superintendent Dep.Super.Teacher Recruitment
265 Education Department 26500645 Deputy Superintendent Deputy Sup. Assess. & Account.
265 Education Department 26500098 Deputy Superintendent Deputy Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500164 Deputy Superintendent Deputy Superintendent of Curri
265 Education Department 26500451 Executive Director Ex Dir of Sch Based Mntl Hlth
265 Education Department 26500404 Executive Director Ex Dir of School Counseling
265 Education Department 26500312 Executive Director Exe Dir of School Success
265 Education Department 26500320 Executive Director Exec Dir College & Career Read
265 Education Department 26500371 Executive Director Exec Dir Communications

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265 Education Department 26500365 Executive Director Exec Dir Events/Extern Relatio
265 Education Department 26500587 Executive Director Exec Dir Ntwk Improv Comm
265 Education Department 26500638 Executive Director Exec Dir of Academic Grants
265 Education Department 26500212 Executive Director Exec Dir of Finance & Audits
265 Education Department 26500034 Executive Director Exec Dir Professional Learning
265 Education Department 26500716 Executive Director Exec Director of Spec Programs
265 Education Department 26500184 Executive Director Exec. Dir of Schl Personnel Re
265 Education Department 26500685 Executive Director Exec. Dir. of Innovative Prog.
265 Education Department 26500065 Executive Director Exec. Dir. Outreach/Profession
265 Education Department 26500734 Executive Director Executive Dir Prevention Serv
265 Education Department 26500466 Executive Director Executive Director
265 Education Department 26500574 Executive Director Executive Director
265 Education Department 26500028 Executive Director Executive Director
265 Education Department 26500412 Executive Director Executive Director Accred
265 Education Department 26500018 Executive Director Executive Director CN
265 Education Department 26500427 Executive Director Executive Director FamComEn
265 Education Department 26500091 Executive Director Executive Director Federal Pro
265 Education Department 26500344 Executive Director Executive Director Fin Acct
265 Education Department 26500182 Executive Director Executive Director HR
265 Education Department 26500147 Executive Director Executive Director Info Sys
265 Education Department 26500080 Executive Director Executive Director of Academic
265 Education Department 26500726 Executive Director Executive Director of Data Gov
265 Education Department 26500062 Executive Director Executive Director of Data Lit
265 Education Department 26500149 Executive Director Executive Director of Early Ch
265 Education Department 26500334 Executive Director Executive Director of ELP
265 Education Department 26500463 Executive Director Executive Director of NAEP
265 Education Department 26500009 Executive Director Executive Director of State Ai
265 Education Department 26500369 Executive Director Executive Director of State As
265 Education Department 26500133 Executive Director Executive Director of TLE
265 Education Department 26500492 Executive Director Executive Director of Well-Rou
265 Education Department 26500359 Executive Director Executive Director SoonerStart
265 Education Department 26500559 Executive Director Executive Director Teach Cert
265 Education Department 26500496 Senior Director Senior Director of Ed, Policy,
265 Education Department 26500154 State Supt of Public Instructi St Superintendent of Pub Instr
265 Education Department 26500052 Accreditation Ofcr-Statewide Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500150 Accreditation Ofcr-Statewide Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500681 Accreditation Ofcr-Statewide Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500003 Accreditation Ofcr-Statewide Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500287 Accreditation Ofcr-Statewide Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500517 Accreditation Ofcr-Statewide Superintendent
265 Education Department 26500410 Temporary Temp. Chief of Public Affairs

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 Exhibit 4
Superintendent Hofmeister’s Chief of Staff’s communications with (then-) current employees and a
table displaying a disturbing trend of deleting all sent communications.

OSDE employee sending confidential agency email to the former Chief of Staff’s personal email
account.

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Text messages with (then-) current employees referring to Superintendent Walters.

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Superintendent Hofmeister’s Chief of Staff’s email trend from July 2021 to January 2023.
The blue bars show the number of sent emails, while the orange bars show the number of
deleted emails. Beginning in July 2022, the number of deleted emails spikes, and in August,
the number of sent emails goes to zero. It is not possible that the former Chief of Staff sent
zero emails during his last 6 months at SDE; he likely deleted all of his communications.
Emails sent by state employees are considered open records, and by deleting his
communications, the former Chief of Staff deleted records the public has the right to access.

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