OKCPS board hires from within school district, selecting Polk as its next superintendent

Jamie Polk, who’s served as the assistant superintendent for elementary education in Oklahoma City Public Schools since July 2019, was chosen Saturday morning as the next superintendent of the state’s second-largest school district.

The district school board voted 7-0 during a special meeting to elevate Polk into the top role, effective July 1. She will replace Sean McDaniel, who resigned in February but is serving in the position until June 30. The board gave Polk a three-year contract that will run through June 30, 2027.

Polk’s selection drew two standing ovations from those gathered at the Clara Luper Center for Educational Services for the meeting – once when board Chair Paula Lewis made the motion, and again after the board voted.

“It is a good day for kids in OKCPS,” Lewis said immediately before the vote.

In a message to The Oklahoman, McDaniel also expressed happiness with Polk’s selection: “I couldn’t be more pleased. Dr. Polk is exactly what OKCPS needs and I have great confidence in her and in her ability to lead the district. She is wise and student-centered. I believe we can all expect great things under her guidance and leadership. Big congratulations to Dr. Polk and to her family!”

The majority of Polk’s education career was spent working for Lawton Public Schools. Her final position during her 25 years in that Comanche County district was as its assistant superintendent of educational services. She previously served as a site principal and assistant principal within that district. Polk also spent time as a board member for Bishop Public Schools, a tiny dependent district in Lawton.

From Waterloo, Iowa, Polk graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She received a master’s degree in elementary education from Cameron University in Lawton in 2010 and an administration certification from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. She earned her doctoral degree in education policy and leadership from the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Polk said she wanted “to build upon the leadership that has already been established” within the district. “This is an exciting time for us. … I love school! Many will hear that I enjoy data, and digging in data, but what’s most important to me is I enjoy helping people and empowering them to be the best that they can be, be it the students or the teachers or the leaders. Through this journey, we will excel and we will be the first-choice district in Oklahoma.”

What was the search process like for district leaders?

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association assisted the district with its search for a new superintendent. Board vice chair Lori Bowman said the district received 20 applicants for the job. Of those, Lewis said 10 were “highly qualified” applicants. The board interviewed seven candidates in the first round before narrowing the field, but “Dr. Polk was a leader from the beginning” of the process, “because she’s been a leader here for five years,” Lewis said.

“The board is very proud of that (search) process,” Lewis said. “We hustled it through, because we knew we needed to get it done. It was a little bit of a short turnaround, but the board committed many hours to it. I respect my board members for giving that time.”

Polk said her husband’s job in the military brought them to Fort Sill, near Lawton, and they put down roots there. But as her husband prepared to retire, he said he’d follow her to a job, just as she had followed him years earlier, and she joined McDaniel’s leadership team in 2019.

Lewis said Polk’s work has led to significant improvements to the culture and academic achievement within the district. Lewis noted that 11 Oklahoma City schools that once received Fs on the Oklahoma State Report Card have come off that list and said Polk’s work has enabled the district to retain qualified educators during the midst of a teacher shortage in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma City district had 10 schools on the “F” list on the most recent Oklahoma State Report Card for the 2022-23 school year, but that number has dropped from 30 such schools in the 2018-19 school year.

“I believe I’m a systems leader,” Polk said. “I look for systems and I look for where, perhaps, it has broken down and that’s where we plug in. That’s what we have done in the elementary department is looking at systems in order for teachers to look at the data and then look at what each individual child needs, and then go from there.”

McDaniel's surprise resignation started the process that led to Polk being selected as his successor

Polk will succeed McDaniel, who submitted his surprise resignation on Feb. 26. McDaniel said then an “irreconcilable” difference of opinion with a board member led him to the decision to step down after six years in the position.

Although that board member never has been publicly identified, emails obtained by The Oklahoman indicated an increasing level of disagreement over the last few months between McDaniel and board leaders, including Lewis and Bowman, especially concerning issues regarding charter schools sponsored by the district.

McDaniel is the longest-serving Oklahoma City Public Schools superintendent since Arthur Steller, who held the job from 1985 through November 1992. Since 1985, the Oklahoma City district has had 16 superintendents, including McDaniel. Oklahoma City Public Schools has about 33,000 students and is second only to Tulsa Public Schools in size among Oklahoma’s brick-and-mortar school districts.

Polk will inherit the responsibility of being the ultimate administrator of projects included in the $955 million bond proposal approved by district voters in November 2022. Controversy has swirled around some of those projects, most notably at historic Capitol Hill High School.

“There has been no action item to demolish it, so we are not there,” Lewis said. “We are moving forward with communication. I believe Dr. Polk will have more engagement on that (project) and look at that. But that was one of the pieces that was in a holding pattern until we got a new superintendent in place.”

When Polk's new contract takes effect on July 1, she will have a base salary of $250,000 plus insurance and retirement benefits, a vehicle and a technology allowance of $10,000. She'll also be eligible for annual performance bonuses of up to 10% of her salary. McDaniel's current base salary is $278,300 after he received a raise last October, making him Oklahoma's highest-paid district superintendent.

When Polk ascends to the district's top job, that will mean Oklahoma’s two largest school districts will be led by Black women. Earlier this year, the board for Tulsa Public Schools selected Ebony Johnson as its superintendent.

State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who tried to insert himself into the Tulsa board’s superintendent-selection process, appeared to not do the same thing as Oklahoma City’s board went through its process. Walters issued a statement not long after Polk’s selection on Saturday.

“I want to congratulate Dr. Jamie Polk as the new Oklahoma Public Schools Superintendent,” Walters said. “She has big challenges ahead of her, but she has shown herself to be extremely capable and hyper-focused on outcomes for the district. I’m excited as we will be working together for the parents and kids of the district.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC school board selects Polk as district's next superintendent