District V voters turned out Tuesday for a school board election, seeming to want to make certain that the incumbent would never again have the bully pulpit she had used for 21 years to harass, belittle and denigrate.Board Member Thelma Reese Parks, 86, was soundly defeated by a nearly 3-1 margin by a newcomer, who had promised to “stand up” for her constituents during her brief campaign.
Ruth Veales, 53, a grandmother whose three adult children are graduates of the Oklahoma City Public School System, won with 72.6 percent of the vote.
Veales
The administrative assistant for the police department in Spencer got 658 votes to Mrs. Parks’ 249, leaving the 21-year incumbent with a paltry 27.4 percent of the votes cast two days ago.
Mrs. Veales, who once worked for the Urban League of Greater Metropolitan Oklahoma City, seemed to have almost quietly organized a campaign that was the undoing of Thelma R. Parks.
First Challenge
This was the only reelection challenge Mrs. Parks has faced for the position.
The incumbent was opposed for the position when she first sought the post.
That was when perennial candidate Clyde Madden lost narrowly to her over two decades ago.
With subsequent reelection ventures (probably due to apathy, some election evaluators have said), Mrs. Parks never drew an opponent, and was, therefore, chosen by default time and time again.
Not ‘No;’ Not ‘Yes’
During those two decades on the school board, Mrs. Parks gained an infamous reputation for her frequent abstentions on votes the school board took, particularly on momentous issues considered important to her constituents.
It’s conceivable that Mrs. Veales may have decided on her campaign promise to “stand up [and be counted]” so as to make clear to voters that she would be different from Mrs. Parks.
Apparently, voters responded to that campaign theme, and seemed anxious to put some credible body on the board to represent District V….almost regardless of who it would be.
Confident
It appears as if Mrs. Parks was confident that this election would be just like previous ones, that apathy would again rule the day, and no one would file against her.
Mrs. Parks filed for reelection the first day candidates were allowed to file, but Mrs. Veales filed as a candidate the day after.
From the time the deadline for candidates to file had come and gone the following Wednesday, Mrs. Veales began to get telephone calls at her home from Mrs. Parks.
Mrs. Veales finally arrived at her home and answered Mrs. Parks’ call at about 10:30 p.m.
‘Wanna Withdraw?’
The incumbent school board member began the conversation by telling Mrs. Veales that four or five other people had told her they had considered running for the District V post, but would not run if Mrs. Parks was to be a candidate.
She then told Mrs. Veales that she had “some things” she wanted to accomplish before she left the school board, and that she needed about two years to get them done.
Mrs. Parks then suggested to Mrs. Veales that she should withdraw as a candidate, and, after pointing out to Mrs. Veales that she had until the following Friday to withdraw, Mrs. Parks made a promise.
Mrs. Parks said that, if Mrs. Veales would withdraw as a candidate, she would serve just two years and would then resign.
She, Mrs. Parks promised, would then recommend that the school board appoint Mrs. Veales to complete Mrs. Parks’ term.
‘Yeah, Right!’
Mrs. Veales responded by saying that she also had some things she wanted to accomplish, and would not be withdrawing from the race.
As the campaign ensued, Mrs. Parks appears to have come to believe she had lost, and to recognize that she would almost certainly have lost during her first reelection campaign had somebody with the slightest degree of credibility filed against her.
Indeed, there were a number of clear signals that Mrs. Veales would win….and win big.
District V voters got recorded telephone messages from the likes of Rev. Major L. Jemison, pastor of the St. John Missionary Baptist Church, and from others, all encouraging voters to vote for Mrs. Veales.
At Church
Last week at the Sunday morning worship services at the Faith Memorial Baptist Church (the church Mrs. Parks attends), the incumbent school board member told members of the congregation that she had only run this time because she had been encouraged to do so.
Numerous students and teachers and others, Mrs. Parks said the Sunday before Election Day, had all told her that they desperately needed her to continue representing them on the school board.
A Sunday or two before that, a source said, Mrs. Parks had stood in the audience during the morning worship services, and had argued with Faith Memorial Baptist’s pastor, who was standing behind the pulpit at the time.
The source cited that incident as one of many examples of how belligerent and confrontational Mrs. Parks is in her dealings with practically everyone she encounters.
Naming a School
Early in her tenure on the school board, Mrs. Parks irritated a great many of her constituents and others because of the way she finagled to get a newly-built elementary school named for herself.
Some years ago, the Thelma Reese Parks Elementary School was built (along with a variety of other new schools) as a result of a bond issue that had been passed under the tutelage of the first Black to serve as superintendent of the district.
Dr. Betty G. Mason had been named superintendent a short time prior to the time the bond issue was voted upon, and she, some believed, was courageous to have pushed for such a measure.
Some commended Supt. Mason for proposing and helping gain broad community support for the bond issue, especially since several decades had elapsed since such an issue had been passed by voters.
As a consequence, the school buildings throughout the district had been neglected and had deteriorated, with some of them needing replacing.
The Mason-proposed measure passed, and, as a result, a new elementary school was built in northeast Oklahoma City….in Mrs. Parks’ district.
Politicians
When school board members began to consider persons for whom the new school should be named, the name of Supt. Mason quickly became the favored one.
Those who wanted the school named for Dr. Mason reasoned that the honor was certainly deserved, citing the superintendent’s leadership demonstrated with the bond issue.
However, some politicians who disliked Dr. Mason expressed their outrage at the prospect of the school being named to honor her, and started a campaign to thwart the school board’s effort.
When it was all said and done, other names were floated out (names like that of Dr. Alphonso Dowell Sr., who had been the plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to the desegregation of public schools in Oklahoma City).
Dr. Dowell, an optometrist who had once served as a city councilman, died some time after the school-naming incident.
In any case, the name of Thelma Parks was, strangely enough, listed among those being talked about for the naming of the school.
Mrs. Parks, a retired schoolteacher who had managed to become a guidance counselor before her career ended, many were saying, was just not in the same league with the others whose names that were being bantered about.
In the end, the board was evenly split: four board members wanted Supt. Mason to get the honor, and four others voted for Mrs. Parks.
Since Mrs. Parks had finagled it so that she was one of those being voted upon, most figured that she would recuse herself, so to speak, and just not participate.
But, in one of the rare times Mrs. Parks did not abstain as a vote of some consequence was being taken, she weighed in and broke the tie by voting that the school be named in honor of her….
That’s how we got the Thelma Reese Parks Elementary School.
Dr. Mason went on to be hired as superintendent of the school district in Gary, Ind., and eventually retired, moved back to Oklahoma City.
She now is superintendent of the private schools operated by her church.
Parks vs. Porter
Then, of course, there was the repeated skirmishes Mrs. Parks had with the second Black to serve as superintendent in Oklahoma City: John Q. Porter.
Clashes
During Mr. Porter’s short tenure as superintendent, Mrs. Parks had numerous clashes with him over policy issues, particularly over decisions the superintendent had made pertaining to schools located within District V.
During some of those clashes, Mrs. Parks actually called Supt. Porter a liar and voiced other criticisms of him while school board meetings were underway.
When the clashes between Supt. Porter and then-School Board Chairman Cliff Hudson were going on, Mrs. Parks sided with Mr. Hudson.
She was clearly aligned with the board chairman as he attempted firing Supt. Porter less than nine months since Mr. Porter was hired, offering as justification a number of later-determined-to-be trumped up so-called allegations.
As the very contentious board meetings unfolded, during which Mr. Hudson was orchestrating his strategy to fire Supt. Porter, Mrs. Parks initially abstained on two key votes, but later voted against the superintendent.
Of course, in the process, Supt. Porter filed a federal lawsuit, asking courts to bar the school board from firing him, and several days followed, during which intensive negotiations were conducted.
Eventually, a deal was brokered, with which both Mr. Hudson and Supt. Porter agreed to resign their respective posts.
The superintendent was given about $300,000 that had been raised by a foundation, and he withdrew his lawsuit.
With that, the scheduled vote by the board (at which Mrs. Parks was certainly to vote against Supt. Porter) was called off.
Mrs. Veales said she expects to be sworn in Monday as the new school board member representing District V.
