News 9 Uncovers The Costly Truth Behind OSDE's Board Meeting Videos

After multiple videos were shared by OSDE at monthly board meetings and on social media News 9 has been pushing the state department for answers on how much this is costing taxpayers and who exactly is making these videos and today, News 9 got those answers.

In a video from the State Department of Education, Rep. Cyndi Munson said, “the spending of $22,000 of taxpayer money to create these controversial videos that are not helping or advancing public education in Oklahoma”.

Receipts from OSDE show a $22,500 contract with Precision Outreach, a firm based in Houston Texas.

The funds went into the 5-minute video showed at May’s board of education meeting titled "Who's in Charge of our Kids".

The receipts show vendor charged $750 a minute to create the video, adding that “The vendor was selected due to the expedited time constraints needed for production.”

Munson calls this a waste of taxpayer dollars, “It's just another concern, you can add it to the list.”

Most state agencies, including the house, senate and governor’s office, use in-house staff for video production and media services. 

When we asked OSDE about Munson's concerns a spokesperson just told us they don’t have an in-house media team so they had to contract out.

Munson was one of many democrats who called for a bipartisan committee to investigate possible impeachment charges for State Superintendent Walters.

She says, “I think it's a smart pragmatic careful path, we don't take it lightly, we understand it’s unprecedented in the state of Oklahoma. We think it's time to hold him accountable and use the authority and power that we have to protect our public schools.”

The contract is dated to be valid from May 22, 2023 - May 21st, 2024. 

This was one of almost a dozen open records requests that we’ve submitted to OSDE; most of those, News 9 is still waiting on.