Meet Oklahoma City's newest school board member

First, he was a graduate, then a parent in Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Now, Cary Pirrong is the district’s newest school board member.

The 1983 Northeast High School alumnus took the oath of office and sat for his first board meeting Monday at the Clara Luper Center for Educational Services.

“OKCPS has been on the rise for the last 10, 15 years and I want to see that continue,” Pirrong said.

The board appointed Pirrong, 56, to its vacant District 3 position on July 11. Former board member Carrie Coppernoll-Jacobs resigned from the seat last month for personal reasons.

Pirrong’s appointment will last through the 2024 school board election, when the position is next up for a vote.

District 3 covers parts of northwest and southwest Oklahoma City, including Northwest Classen High School and most of the elementary and middle schools that feed into it.

The school board conducted hours of interviews with candidates across three days in late June.

Board Chairperson Paula Lewis said the field was “incredibly competitive.” She said Pirrong stood out because of his legal policy experience and his lengthy history as a student, resident and parent in the school district.

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Coppernoll-Jacobs was the head of the board’s policy committee before she departed, creating space for another member to take on that focus. Lewis hasn’t determined the committee’s next chairperson, though District 2 representative Lori Bowman has led the committee in the interim.

“He is a product of our system,” Lewis said of Pirrong. “He has kids who are in our system. His wife was a teacher in our system, and his passion was just clear. He just came across as he was going to be here for the kids and for the community.”

Pirrong is the father of an OKCPS student and of a district graduate. His wife formerly taught at Capitol Hill, U.S. Grant and Emerson high schools.

The longtime attorney gave legal counsel to various state agencies before stepping into higher education in 2011. He worked as director of alumni relations for Oklahoma City University and director of equity and compliance for Oklahoma City Community College. He is now administrative director for the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners.

Pirrong said the greatest challenge facing the district is “overcoming the negative perception from many years ago.”

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Enrollment in Oklahoma City schools fell from its 1960s peak throughout the 1970s with the advent of racial integration and busing.

Trust in OKCPS eroded in the years since Pirrong attended and graduated from the district — to the extent that six bond proposals failed at the ballot box from 1980 through 1999. In the past two decades, OKCPS gave little assurance of stability with 14 superintendents serving since 2000.

Lewis ran for board chairperson in 2017, and for re-election in 2021, on the promise of consistent district leadership. Hired in 2018, Sean McDaniel is the second-longest-tenured OKCPS superintendent in the past 22 years and would tie for longest-tenured next year.

Pirrong said the negative view some residents have from decades past “needs to change.”

Improved public opinion will be critical for the district to pass a potential $900 million bond issue this November.

“I think the greatest challenge still facing OKCPS is the perception from the community that, in my opinion, is not a correct perception and it hasn’t been correct for 10 or 15 years,” he said. “A lot of people that hold the negative perception, if you will, haven’t set foot in a school in 20 or 30 years.”

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City Public Schools graduate, parent takes school board seat