Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting ‘lighter, happier’ after superintendent change

OKLAHOMA CITY — Thursday marked a new day for the Oklahoma State Board of Education, with two new board members and a new state superintendent at its meeting table.

The mood was lighter, and the board’s meeting room was, too. Window blinds were open in the usually crowded, cavelike corner of the Oklahoma State Department of Education. No line of protesters stretched to enter the building.

Portraits of the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame, which former state Superintendent Ryan Walters had remo...