A state lawmaker who has now issued two legislative subpoenas to state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters said he hopes Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office will look more deeply into the employment status of Walters’ top adviser, who Walters accepted last week. that you are working without a contract or employment agreement. .
Documents received from Rep. Mark McBride and House Speaker Charles McCall indicated in their most recent call that Walters adviser Matt Langston has been either a temporary or part-time employee of the Oklahoma State Department of Education since January 2023, when Walters took office.
Langston, the agency told McBride and McCall, is currently listed as a part-time employee.
Public records show that for what the agency said was a part-time job, Langston was paid $113,500 in 2023 and was paid $45,475 through April of this year, including a $2,600 “discretionary performance award” given in January. 12. Langston also receives state benefits despite his part-time status.
According to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, part-time employment is defined as working less than 35 hours per week. However, the state wage data website shows Langston worked about 45.5 hours per week during January, the most recent pay period listed.
McBride said the Attorney General’s office is aware of the situation: “I would say it’s on their radar. It puts it more on their radar.”
But a spokesman for that office said, “We have not received any requests to investigate the matters Rep. McBride referred to you, so we simply do not have a comment to make at this time.”
The Oklahoman asked state Department of Education spokesman Dan Isett whether Langston was a full-time or part-time employee, why Langston averaged 45.5 hours a week in January, what specific work Langston does on behalf of the agency, why Langston gets state benefits if he is a part-time employee, why Langston received the performance bonus, and why Langston is allowed to telecommute from Texas.
Isett did not answer any of these questions in his response:
“Under Walters’ watch, OSDE has rapidly brought about some of the nation’s most comprehensive education reforms, such as implementing the most effective teacher recruitment initiative in the state’s history, launching the nation’s most comprehensive teaching program, enacting a tied school accreditation to academics and he has been instrumental in bringing about the state’s largest district reforms to focus on student outcomes,” Isett said. “These reforms and many more have been implemented with Matt Langston because of his effectiveness.
“McBride is a liar and continues to create a false narrative based on his denial that results are needed to reform education. He has shown a willingness to work directly with radical unions, extremist LGBTQ+ communities and the far left to stop reform with common sense. It is unfortunate that instead of reform he is only interested in targeting and attacking effective employees individually.”
McBride has been asking Walters for months for information about Langston’s employment status. The lawmaker told The Oklahoman that he “knew all along” that there was no contract or employment agreement for Langston, but “I wanted (Walters) to tell me that. Who wouldn’t want a job like that? No one else would.” there is such a job.”
“There are some things (Langston) has to do to be able to have insurance,” McBride said. “I know everywhere you go to work, there should be some kind of paper trail. He may not have had a specific employee contract, but he should have had an offer letter, some kind of employment contract or contract related to his work. him on behalf of OSDE, a job description, but there is nothing.”
McBride referred to Langston as a ghost employee. “We’ve dealt with this once before at other agencies, but he’s definitely a ghost employee.”
McBride was referring to a 2000 scandal involving the Oklahoma State Department of Health, when five former lawmakers and 21 relatives of current or former lawmakers were found to be on that agency’s payroll. The nickname was given to employees who were paid but did little or no work.
Langston worked for Walters’ political campaign before his current position at the education department
Langston served on Walters’ political campaign before being hired by the agency. He is well known in Texas political circles as a campaign consultant. Langston’s LinkedIn page lists his job as “Political-Strategy-Messaging-Management Consultant.” No mention is made of his work with the Oklahoma Department of Education.
According to public records, Langston is the chief executive officer of a Georgetown, Texas-based company known as Engage Right LLC, which its website describes as “a boutique consulting shop that specializes in telling your story voters”.
The legislative subpoena, issued May 23 and signed by McBride, R-Moore, and McCall, R-Atoka, sought “any contract related to Matt Langston’s work on behalf of the Oklahoma State Department of Education, the state superintendent of Oklahoma, Ryan Walters, and/or Oklahoma State.”
More:Call Reveals Ryan Walters’ Advisor Has No Formal Employment Contract: What You Need To Know
The subpoena asked for “employment offer letters, employment applications and job descriptions for employment” for Langston, who lives in Texas while serving as Walters’ chief adviser. Walters sent his response to the subpoena Thursday and told McCall that Langston was a “direct hire” with the state Department of Education. “As such, he has not filled out an application and signed an employment contract,” Walters said.
In an earlier email to McBride, Andrea Fielding — a former deputy director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation who is now chief of operations for the Department of Education — said Langston served as a “temporary employee” at the agency from January . 13, 2023, to June 30, 2023. Fielding said that as of July 1, 2023, Langston “has been a part-time employee with benefits. Due to the nature of his employment, his hours fluctuate each month, leading to changes in his gross pay.”
In his response to the subpoena, Walters did not include any offer letters or employment applications and said he was “unsure what important or salacious information could be gleaned” from such documents “about an employee who has worked with my agency for more than 17 months.”
Walters included a document that appears to be a job description for a “principal policy adviser” at the agency. The document listed the position as full-time, not part-time, and said the salary was “based on education and experience.” The job location is listed as the Oliver Hodge Building in Oklahoma City, where the agency is located, although it notes that the position “is suitable for telecommuting.” Langston lives in the Austin, Texas metropolitan area.
The last revision of the document is listed as January 2023, which is the month Walters took office.
Workers who have left the agency say remote work is disgusting
Although Langston is allowed to telecommute, many former agency employees who once telecommuted have told The Oklahoman that Walters essentially stopped that practice when he became state superintendent. In a resignation letter dated March 7, Linda Reid — a former Oklahoma Teacher of the Year who worked in the agency’s Office of School Support — noted how employees in that office who lived in cities were spread across Oklahoma in order to better serve the schools in their areas. he often worked at home when not visiting a school.
“Although deliberately recruited from different geographical regions and tasked with supporting schools … mainly those near our region, we were informed that we were being physically assigned to the ‘office’ every day at an arbitrary local school – without consultation with that school — and that all work should happen there, down the road at another school site, or within the physical OSDE,” Reid wrote.
Records provided to The Oklahoman by other former agency employees indicate that the dictates to end telecommuting came from Walters.
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