Former Oklahoma lawmaker appointed to fill OKCPS board vacancy
Mike Shelton takes the oath of office as the District 5 representative on the Oklahoma City Board of Education on Monday at the Clara Luper Center for Educational Services. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Mike Shelton is back in public office.
The former Democratic state representative took the oath of office for an open position on the Oklahoma City Board of Education on Monday evening. The board appointed him to the District 5 seat that Adrian Anderson vacated in April.
“I can tell you, as a member of the House of Representatives in the past, that there’s no single more important office than the school board,” he said in his inaugural remarks.
Anderson moved out of District 5 and had to leave the school board position.
Shelton will represent northeast Oklahoma City again in District 5. He did so in the state House from 2004 to 2016.
He is the inter-governmental and community liaison at Metro Technology Centers. Shelton earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Langston University and a master’s degree in management and leadership from Webster University in St. Louis.
He graduated in 1991 from Millwood High School in Oklahoma City.
Shelton wasn’t the only one to sit at the school board horseshoe for the first time on Monday. Oklahoma City Public Schools’ incoming superintendent, Jamie Polk, led her maiden meeting, as well.
Polk is the district’s head of elementary schools. She will succeed Superintendent Sean McDaniel as the district’s chief executive on July 1.
McDaniel wasn’t present. He hasn’t attended any board meetings since Feb. 29, when the board accepted his decision to resign.
His resignation letter cites disagreements with a board member as the reason for his departure. He has never named the official with whom he had conflict.
Polk will be a first-time superintendent. She has been with the district since 2019 after spending 25 years as an administrator, principal and teacher in Lawton Public Schools.
She will lead the district as it begins a bevy of projects funded by a 2022 bond issue. The board spent much of Monday’s meeting reviewing bond construction plans.
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