State Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks at an Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting April 25 in Oklahoma City. On Monday, he announced signing bonuses for certified math and science teachers who agree to work in rural schools. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma State Department of Education announced it will offer a new round of signing bonuses to attract teachers to rural schools. Meanwhile, the agency is reportedly negotiating a settlement agreement with two teachers to whom it previously improperly paid bonuses.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters said Monday that his office will offer signing bonuses of $15,000 to $25,000 to secondary math and science teachers who agree to work at a public school in rural Oklahoma during the next school year.
A similar signing bonus program from the agency lured more than 500 certified teachers back to Oklahoma schools last year, but it caused significant controversy and drew criticism from lawmakers when a few teachers arrived later told they had to refund the money they paid.
“I am excited to continue attracting highly qualified teachers to Oklahoma classrooms,” Walters said in a statement. “Oklahoma is a great place to live and work, and we are making it easier than ever for teachers to come to our great state and make a tremendous impact on our young people.”
Eligible teachers must not have taught in an Oklahoma public school during the 2023-2024 school year. They must have a teaching certificate in secondary mathematics or science and be hired to teach in a rural school for the year 2024-2025.
The agency provided a list of 384 schools that meet the definition of a rural area, according to criteria from the National Center for Education Statistics. One school on the list no longer exists, Sovereign community college.
The Department of Education called the program the “most successful teacher recruitment effort in state history.”
The agency awarded bonuses last year to a handful of teachers who didn’t meet the criteria and months later demanded they pay them back. Walters informed the state Legislature that his office had also wrongly underpaid other recipients.
Two of the teachers who were told they had to pay back their bonuses, Kay Bojorquez and Kristina Stadelman, sued the department and Walters in Oklahoma County District Court, alleging breach of contract and defamation.
Their attorney, Mark Hammons, said they have reached a tentative settlement with the Department of Education and plan to finalize it this week.
Both teachers were approved for the program and received a $50,000 bonus in October and November. In January, they received letters from the agency, informing them that they had never actually qualified and were owed the full $50,000 back.
More than $20,000 of each bonus was withheld for taxes, and Bojorquez, of Osage County, and Stadelman, of Oklahoma County, spent the rest of the money before the Department of Education demanded they return it, according to their lawsuit.
Walters said the erroneous bonuses were a result of teachers putting “wrong information” in their applications. That statement was defamatory, Bojorquez and Stadelman said. The teachers asked a judge to order Walters to pay them each at least $75,000 for defamation.
The Department of Education and Walters have since countersued the teachers, asking for the full bonuses to be returned plus legal fees. The agency said that by requesting and accepting the bonuses, Bojorquez and Stadelman represented that they had not taught at an Oklahoma public school last year, when in fact they had.
The two teachers said they truthfully reported their work histories. They claim the situation was caused by the agency’s “own alleged negligence or malfeasance in providing such approval.”
“It would be financially impossible for the plaintiff to repay the signing bonus,” their lawsuit states.
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The post Walters announces signing bonuses for rural Oklahoma teachers despite past controversy first appeared on Oklahoma Voice.
