Approaching deadline, Western Heights hasn't removed Superintendent
Friday is the deadline the state gave the Western Heights School District to remove its superintendent, Mannix Barnes.
The district has not removed Barnes, despite the state suspending his certification.
RELATED:Mannix Barnes remains Western Heights Superintendent despite parent protests
The Western Heights board doesn't have any meetings scheduled this week.
The state has a laundry list of issues with the district ranging from the staggering loss of students and staff to allegations of financial mismanagement.
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said they have until July 8 to remove Barnes.
The Western Heights School Board has held meetings since then, but they haven't discussed it.
Fox 25 reached out to every board member to ask why.
Rosalind Cravens says she believes is the district is in compliance.
She wholeheartedly supports Mannix Barnes and believes the state's demand for them to remove him is not legitimate.
RELATED:Western Heights parents asking superintendent, some board members to resign
The district's newest board member, Briana Flatley, called it a serious situation that needs to be addressed.
No others would respond or discuss the situation.
The state says if Western Heights doesn't remove Barnes, it will vote on options like taking away the district's accreditation or taking over the district and replacing Barnes themselves.
The department of education says taking over would be an unprecedented move.
In its last meeting, the state board went over Barnes' long history with Western Heights school board president Robert Everman.
The two men worked together at the Oklahoma Department of Labor, where the state says there were claims of harassment and retaliation.
Both of them served on the board of the Lupus Foundation of Oklahoma before Barnes became its executive director.
The state says there hasn't been a tax return filed by the foundation since 2017, the IRS revoked its non-profit status and accounts were in the red for three years before that.
And at Lucky Star Casino, Barnes was general manager while Everman was CFO.
The state school board says there were complaints of harassment and a hostile work environment there, and an audit couldn't find enough evidence to form an opinion one year, unable to find documentation for millions of dollars.
The state board argued there's a pattern that repeated at Western Heights.
At a meeting Monday morning, the state board of education will decide what to do with Western Heights next.
The Western Heights School Board has a meeting scheduled for Monday evening.
There is a pending lawsuit that Western Heights filed against the state over its probation.
The state says that won't have any impact on the board of education's decision Monday.
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