Ryan Walters' administration exodus continues with departure of top accreditation official

Another high-ranking official at the Oklahoma State Department of Education — the leader of its team that determines accreditation for the state’s public schools — has joined the agency’s top attorney in resigning.

Friday was the final day at the agency for Ryan Pieper, its executive director of accreditation. He confirmed to The Oklahoman both he and the agency’s general counsel, Bryan Cleveland, are stepping away from their posts.

Both have held key positions in the administration of state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who took office in January 2023 and has seen since a steady exodus of employees from the agency.

The resignations continue a pattern of disarray within a department that has been constantly in the spotlight and the subject of multiple legal challenges since Walters became superintendent.

A job posting for Cleveland’s position could be found on Indeed.com on Thursday.

On Thursday, Education Department spokesman Dan Isett would not confirm Cleveland or Pieper's departures. In response to multiple requests for comment, Isett responded: “At this time, OSDE is not ready to make any public announcements regarding personnel.”

The Oklahoman has requested the resignation letters submitted by Pieper and Cleveland, which are public documents as defined by the Oklahoma Open Records Act, but has not received them yet.

Accreditation is one of the key functions of the state Education Department

School accreditation is among the core functions of the Education Department. According to the agency website, its accreditation standards division “is to provide service to increase student learning and achievement, leadership to promote the improvement of the common Schools of Oklahoma, and regulation to maintain necessary Standards.”

Every Oklahoma public school goes through the accreditation process annually. Pieper said he believes the accreditation division is “the heart of the agency. All of the other divisions work through us.”

Since Walters took office, he has used the accreditation process as a weapon, threatening to lower the accreditation rating of districts that have drawn his ire, including Tulsa, Western Heights and Edmond.

Pieper has worked in the agency’s accreditation division since October 2014, when Janet Barresi was state schools superintendent. He has served as the agency’s executive director of accreditation since August 2019, when Walters’ immediate predecessor, Joy Hofmeister, was superintendent. He’s continued in that role under Walters, making Pieper one of only a handful of top-level employees at the agency who’s worked for the past three state superintendents.

Pieper’s office is a primary point of contact for local school district officials from across Oklahoma.

“I have had the most amazing team,” Pieper said. “The people I’ve had the chance to work alongside every day are fantastic. I am proud of the work we’ve done during the last four years. There still are a lot of great people working at the Oklahoma State Department of Education.”

Pieper said his new job will be working for Cognia, an Alpharetta, Georgia-based company that serves education providers — including public, private, early learning, digital and charter schools, as well as state education agencies — with accreditation, assessment and improvement services. According to its website, Cognia serves about 40,000 institutions in 90 countries. Pieper said he will continue to live in Oklahoma.

He said Brent Meeks, one of the Education Department’s current accreditation officers, has been selected as the interim director of the agency’s accreditation division.

The Education Department has lost numerous key personnel since Walters took over. Among them are Terri Grissom, who wrote applications for competitive federal grants for the state Education Department for five years. She left the agency April 18 and testified the next month at a legislative hearing.

In May, the agency’s executive director of prevention and intervention services, Michelle Strain — whose work focused on crisis counseling, suicide and bullying prevention, school climate, homeless student services and more — resigned. In October, the agency’s program manager for grant development and compliance, Pamela Smith-Gordon, left after only months on the job, complaining about a lack of access to Walters.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters' administration: Top accreditation official leaving post