'They Were Juvenile': Bixby Superintendent Responds To Walters Comments

Bixby Schools Superintendent Rob Miller is responding to comments made by State Superintendent Ryan Walters at a State School Board meeting Wednesday.

"We're dealing with all kinds of financial problems with his district that we're having to address right now, so Rob's a clown and a liar, and he knows that," said Walters.

The comments from Walters were spurred by social media posts from earlier this week where Superintendent Miller asked the state when districts would receive their title 1 allocations for the upcoming school year.

Miller took the issue to social media after he says his requests to the state have gone unanswered.

"I think the comments were ill-placed; they were juvenile. I'm not sure why he responded in the way he did rather than just giving the honest answer," said Miller.

"School starts in about two and a half weeks in Bixby but sooner in many other districts and we still have not received a bit of information from the State Department."

Title 1 funds help support at-risk students who are low-achieving or whose families are struggling financially. Miller has 3 schools that qualify for Title 1 funds in his district this coming school year.

"It was his personal comments yesterday that kind of elevated this. I simply asked a question that was reasonable. When are we going to receive these allocations?" said Miller.

Miller is also asking Walters for an apology for the comments about the district's financial situation that he says are false.

"We had a great audit. Our bond rating is very high. Our financial house is in order, and he just made a false claim in public that defames the hard work that we're doing here," said Miller.

Walters says Title I funding will arrive later this month the same time he says it arrived for more than a decade. He also says Miller never reached out to him for help. Miller provided News On 6 with an email from the state in 2022 about Title 1 funds that are timestamped from May 2022.