The Ponca City Chamber of Commerce’s Ponca Politics Committee held a school board candidate forum at City Hall on Friday, March 17 at noon. Both candidates for Ward 3, Judy Throop and Rod Wohl, were in attendance for the event.

Despite the candidates being up for Ward 3, you do not need to live in Ward 3 to vote. The only requirement is that you live in the Ponca City Public Schools district.

Each candidate was given the opportunity to introduce themselves before being questioned by the audience. Audience members wrote on index cards with questions that each candidate was given. Each candidate were given two minutes to answer the questions.

The following are some selected questions from the forum and the candidates’ answers:

What is your motivation to be on the school board, and what are your qualifications?

Throop: “My motivation at first to be on the school board, [was when I] was a members rights for the ATT and my duty was to attend several board meetings. In that year that I attended those board meetings, I realized that everybody on the board…a lot of them were businessmen and there was just one woman on the board. And I found that, where they could conduct the business, I felt that there was not a voice on that board to decide what the best thing in the classroom for students were. So that was what motivated me to be on the board. I was a teacher for 33 years and I taught different subjects from first to eighth grade. So I feel like I am pretty well rounded as far as education qualifications. And I always make the best decisions for kids. Kids have always been my main reason for running for school board.”

Wohl: “My motivation is totally opposite. I don’t know about education,but I got to rely on our teachers, our staff, our superintendent and our curriculum director to take care of education. I will work with the other board members, I will learn, I will research education for what they need. Mine, more so, is to help the bond dollars passed in this community get spent properly. And that we have budgets that have not gone over, and reallocating funds if they need reallocated. Just to make sure we are a financial sound school district.”

What will your priorities be in the coming year as a school board member?

Wohl: “I have no hidden agenda, I have no rhyme or reason to rock the boat. My agenda would be to work with the new superintendent on whatever stuff he feels fit, and we need to move the direction of our school district to make it safe for our children, and to have a better education for our children.”

Throop: “My only agenda is to do what is right for kids as far as in their education, in the facilities, in the extracurricular activities they choose to be in, and so my agenda is always doing what is right for kids. We have very qualified people to help us with our bond issues. As we all know, the bond was passed in 2021, and in 2022 everything and inflation went crazy. But they have been able to work around and try to get all the projects done like we promised.”

If current State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ wishes for merit pay become a reality, how would you as a board member work to make sure it is implemented fairly? Wohl: “Well first of all, I feel you would need to take care of the existing teachers rather then give new teachers a sign-on bonus. To be across the board, it needs to be a flat rate. But I feel it should be covered overall, and I would work to make sure that not only are new teachers are taken care of, but the old teacher as well.”

Throop: “I have strong feelings about merit pay because in my teaching, I alway taught in what you would call deprived areas, and I worked very hard to get my kids up to graduation level. I feel like before you can really be honest with merit pay, you got to make it to where all the schools are equal. I hope, if they come up with a way for merit pay, that they really think about the fair way to do [it]. Not just according to scores, maybe my how much the class has improved.”

Do you believe extracurricular activities such as band, orchestra, sports, STUCO, cheer, Hi-Steppers, etc. are just as important as academics?

Throop: “I feel like schools are for the learning, but I do think that extracurricular activities are very important. Where some students may not excel in the classroom, but they may be able to excel in music, in sports where they couldn’t in the classroom. And my kids were involved in sports. My one daughter was involved in music. I was involved in sports, my husband was involved in sports, my two girls were involved. I think that extracurricular activities are important.”

Wohl: “The answer for me is yes. Activities, band, STUCO, orchestra are very, very needed for the students. It keeps their minds busy, it keeps them thinking about the future, and it also teaches life lessons. What I would do is work with each booster club to help them raise funds to put back into their facilities, and not use that booster fund to help pay coaches or give them stipends, but to help the kids learn, be productive, and stay off these computer games.”

With the current teacher shortage at crisis levels, what can the school board do to make teaching in Ponca City as attractive as possible so we get the best and brightest, and retain the best we have?

Throop: “We are trying to get our teachers to stay, but what the problem has been, is that some of the area schools have gone to a four-day work week. We’ve chosen not to do that in Ponca City, we stayed with the five-day work week. We cut down the amount of actual number of days, but keeping with the number of hours that we’re supposed to have according to the state. I feel like the state could do a little bit, and they are recommending $2500. Well that’s going to be good, but they are also talking they might not be able to sustain that year after year. So they are talking about giving a stipend, which would be good for one year, but doesn’t help the rest of the time. It seems like when we get a raise, then the other states get a raise, and still stay below the area average. It is unfortunately all about money. They need more money to get them to stay.”

Wohl: “The goal for me would be to work with those state legislators to try and get pay raises, to get pay increases. To go out into the community and see what funding we can raise to get some of these teachers bonuses. Of course, increasing their salaries would be the best thing to do and how to do that. [The board] would go up against the legislature to see what we can do to raise funding.”

Do you think Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion should be taught in public schools?

Wohl: “This is one that would go against my Christianity, but I would say no. I am a Christian and don’t think critical race theory need to be taught in these schools. I don’t think it is necessary, I don’t think there is a place for these kids learning the values of a teacher that is trying to influence their mind and their future.”

Throop: “I agree, I don’t think critical race theory should be taught in our schools, or DEI. Our legislature with HB 1775 has taken care of this for the teachers and it says that ’no educator will be teachers courses that says that one race or sex is superior to another race or sex’, so here in Oklahoma, as of right now, we are not having to teach CRT.

Would you be in support of cameras in the classroom?

Throop: “I’ve never really thought of that. You know, me as a teacher, I wouldn’t mind having cameras in my classroom. You know, I didn’t do anything wrong, but maybe some people would not like them. It does kind of invade on a person’s privacy, and I hope we never get to where we have cameras in the classroom. But, it wouldn’t bother me.”

Wohl: “I agree, I don’t think it is a big deal if you are not doing anything wrong. It would take the onus off the board, the admin or whoever is having to discipline a child or a teacher. We are here at school to learn, not be on our phones and do what the teacher asks us in the classroom. If you’re not hiding anything, I have no problem with cameras in the classroom.”

The election will be held on Tuesday, April 4, with polls open from 7 am to 7 pm. To see if you are eligible to vote, visit okvoterportal.okelections.us.