Drummond scolds board for not voiding contract with ‘unconstitutional’ Catholic charter school

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond scolded the Statewide Charter School Board for not cancelling the contract with St. Isidore of Seville Online Catholic Charter School.

In a letter to the board, Drummond said he found it unacceptable that the board (and the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board before it) had held two meetings and both times had failed to rescind the contract despite an order from the Oklahoma State Supreme Court to do so.

“You must know and accept that no state agency, board, or commission may willfully ignore and order from Oklahoma’s highest court,” Drummond stated in the letter.

In the letter, Drummond scolded the outside legal counsel that consulted the two boards to hold off on voting to rescind the contract, and Drummond said his agency will be legal counsel for the board moving forward.

The new board, designed to merge virtual and physical charter school oversight into one body, announced it would comply with the State Supreme Court’s ruling in the future, but it did not do so at its first ever meeting because it was advised to wait on a possible future ruling coming down from the high court about its own ruling.

Attorneys for the school filed a motion asking the court to stay its ruling while it possibly considers appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. That would allow the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, who are working on the school together, to still make plans to establish the school while it is in legal limbo.

In a new filing on Monday, Drummond said staying the ruling would create confusion for families who already believed the school had already cleared all of its legal hurdles and began enrolling students for the 2024-2025 school year

Drummond pointed to interviews done with local journalists in which the school’s founders announced they had already enrolled more than 200 students for classes set to start in the fall, but then the entire operation was put on hold because the State Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional from the perspective of both the state and U.S. Constitutions. He said families do not need mixed messages but certainty about where their children can receive an education while the school is up in the air.

You can read Drummond’s full letter to the board below.