Ryan Deatherage is now officially a member of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Though the Kingfisher County Emergency Management director has been attending OSBE meetings since being appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in mid-February, he still had to go through the confirmation process.

That process concluded last Tuesday when the state Senate confirmed the nomination of Deatherage and three other new OSBE board members.

Also confirmed were Mike Tinney of Norman, Christopher Van Denhende of Tulsa and Becky Carson of Edmond.

The three will serve unexpired terms until April 2027.

Although the confirmation came without discussion before the Senate, only Carson’s came without a “no” vote.

Deatherage’s was approved by a vote of 33-15.

When the governor makes an appointment that must be confirmed, it falls on the host senator to carry that nomination.

That task fell in the hands of Darcy Jech, senator for the 26th district since 2014.

However, although Jech is also from Kingfisher, he didn’t know Deatherage and wanted to change that before carrying the nomination.

“I reached out to him and we met and chatted a few times,” Jech said. “I was impressed by him from the get-go.”

Jech contended that Deatherage was stepping into a difficult situation on the board.

Stitt removed four members from the board before making his new appointments.

The ousted members were known to vote fully in line with Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of education who has made waves with some controversial policies and rules.

Some of those policies got some pushback from Deatherage and other new board members in subsequent meetings and still others were rejected in the most recent legislative session.

“He knows the situation he’s stepping into and the fact he’s got a willingness to serve speaks a lot to him right there,” Jech said.

Before going to a vote of the full Senate, Deatherage first had to appear before the Senate Education Committee for approval.

Jech sat in on that process as well and came away even more impressed with Deatherage.

“He made himself available to the committee and answered all their questions… and not all of it was friendly,” Jech said, noting that not all Senators agreed with Stitt’s move to shake up the OSBE.

“He got drilled pretty hard by some of them, but he did a great job and answered everything they asked.”

Now that Deatherage has been “through the fire” of his early OSBE meetings and the Senate committee and vote, Jech is confident he’s prepared for the upcoming task.

“The fact he’s willing to stand up to it and be a part of the process says a lot,” Jech said. “It’s not an easy job right now, but I know he’ll do a good job.”