Governor Kevin Stitt’s shakeup of the Oklahoma State Board of Education resulted in a Kingfisher man being nominated to the board.

Ryan Deatherage, the Kingfisher County Emergency Management and 911 director, was named by Stitt as one of three new nominees last Tuesday.

According to the press release from Stitt’s office, the move “comes after ongoing controversy at the Oklahoma State Department of Education and disappointing scores on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).”

Joining Deatherage in being nominated were Michael Tinney of Norman and Chris VanDenhende of Tulsa.

All of Stitt’s nominees are subject to approval by the Oklahoma Senate.

Removed from the board were Katie Quebedeaux, Kendra Wesson and Donald Burdick.

Sarah Lepak and Zach Archer remained on the board and there is still one seat that has been vacant for a year. Stitt is expected to name that nominee soon.

“Nothing is more important than ensuring Oklahoma kids have the best education possible,” said Stitt in his release. “After months of headlines followed by disappointing NAEP scores this month, it’s clear that our education infrastructure has fallen prey to needless political drama. If we want to be the best state for business, we need to make sure our kids have a path to success.

“It’s time for some fresh eyes and a renewed focus on our top 10 goals.”

At the time of the release, it appeared Stitt’s move signaled his tipping point with the headline grabbing Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who also chairs the OSBE.

With Walters pushing for the changes, the OSBE members voted at their Jan. 28 meeting to approve a series of administrative rules changes for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

One of them would require a parent or legal guardian of a child to provide proof of citizenship in the United States in order for that child to be enrolled in a public school.

“We have to know how many illegal immigrants are in our schools so that we know how to allocate resources, so that we know how to solve the issues that arise with that,” Walters said at that meeting. “We will continue to move forward to ensure that we are preventing any kind of illegal immigration movement into our state and into our schools.”

In the days following the meeting, Walters doubled down, even stating school districts would comply with any of President Trump’s executive orders and allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into schools.

“Oklahomans and the country elected President Trump and we will do everything possible to help put Oklahoma students first,” Walters said in a press release. “For years, the liberal media has been vilifying Republicans for separating illegal immigrant children from their parents. Now they want us to explain why we’d let ICE agents into schools. The answer is simple: we want to ensure that deported parents are reconnected with their children and keep families together.”

In a media availability on Wednesday, Stitt touched on that issue as part of his reasoning behind replacing the board members.

“I guess when you’re picking on kids, I guess when you’re using them as political pawns, I guess when you’re starting to make my state nervous about something that’s just pretty normal, I guess that’s when I’m like, listen, enough is enough,” Stitt said. “This is getting ridiculous.

“Collecting 6-, 7-, 8-yearold kids’ addresses and immigration status in the state of Oklahoma, that’s not a public safety issue. Let’s go after the bad guys. Let’s go after people that are committing crimes and let’s not terrorize and make our kids not show up at school.”

Walters didn’t take long to respond to Stitt’s moves with the board by tweeting the following statement Wednesday: “Governor Stitt has joined the swampy political establishment that President Trump is fighting against. The board members that stood with us, working with the Trump Administration to make our schools safer and better, have been fired for political purposes. Every Oklahoman should be clear this move undermines Oklahoma kids and parents and an America First agenda. Stitt believes that the federal government, and not the people, need to continue to control our country. This is disappointing but not surprising. We’ll keep fighting for school choice, parents, kids, and our teachers.”

Deatherage and the other board members are expected to take part in their first meeting on Feb. 27.

He declined to immediately discuss his appointment with the KT&FP, but said he’d be willing to speak about it at a later date.

Deatherage has lived in Kingfisher since 2004. He and his wife, Jill, have three children, Andrew, Aubrey and Amy.

He graduated from Oklahoma Panhandle State University with a degree in agriculture business and a minor in finance.

Prior to moving to Kingfi sher, he served as a city council member and vice mayor of Goodwell.

In March 2022, he was named assistant emergency management director for Kingfisher County.

The next month, Deatherage was voted to the Kingfi sher City Commission.

He resigned that position in December 2022 after Deatherage accepted the position as the county’s 911 director.

When longtime Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis retired last year, Deatherage took over that position full-time as well.

Deatherage is the second person from Kingfisher who Stitt has appointed to the OSBE.

Stitt appointed Kurt Bollenbach to the board in April 2019, but then opted to remove him in December 2020.