Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame inducts 3 more people, but still has no home for portraits

The current chair of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, the superintendent of Lawton Public Schools and a former vice chair of the Comanche Nation are in the 2024 class for the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremony for Robert Franklin, Kevin Hime and Cornel Pewewardy will be Nov. 1 at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club in Nichols Hills.

“Our 37th class of Hall of Fame honorees highlights the incredible work of educators who have influenced generations of Oklahomans and whose legacies are not yet complete,” said Sharon Lease, executive director of the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame. “Their contributions have benefited the youngest among us, are ensuring paths to success for youth and adults, and are contributing to an ever-greater understanding of the importance of Indigenous education. The opportunity to recognize their life’s work is an honor.”

The Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame began in 1984 as a nonprofit organization designed “to recognize and to honor those professionals who have exemplified a commitment of quality public-supported education while demonstrating exceptional abilities in leadership, service, and research benefitting Oklahoma education,” according to the organization.

Portraits of the honorees used to hang in a public hallway at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, housed in the Oliver Hodge Building in the state Capitol complex. However, they were removed soon after state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters took office in January 2023 and are in storage at the agency, Lease told The Oklahoman last year.

One person whose picture was taken down was Hodge, the namesake of the building who once served in the same role as Walters.

When asked last year why the pictures were taken down, a spokesman provided this statement from Walters: “Union leaders and association heads are not what we will highlight,” Walters said. “We are focused on empowering parents and kids with the best education possible. Those are the stories I will be showing in the halls of (the state Department of Education) during my term, not union bosses.”

Robert Franklin

Franklin is considered a pioneer in special education and virtual learning in Oklahoma. Starting in 1981, he served at various times as a special education teacher, high school principal and assistant superintendent of Sand Springs Public Schools. Since 2010, Franklin has served as associate superintendent of Tulsa Technology Center.

As coordinator of Tulsa Tech’s e-School Consortium, he organized and facilitated a partnership among 21 school districts to deliver online and blended learning platforms for students throughout the Tulsa region. Franklin also has served on the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board since 2018.

Kevin Hime

Hime has spent nearly four decades in Oklahoma education, working in the Hugo, Woodward, Idabel, Woodland, Clinton and Lawton school districts, serving as the superintendent in the latter three. While at Clinton, Hime created only the state’s third intergenerational pre-kindergarten program where two classrooms met at a local nursing home.

Hime helped develop, using social media, an online chat known as “#oklaed.” He also has overseen the creation of Lawton’s national award-winning Life Ready Center, which expanded the availability of Advanced Placement and concurrent courses to more Lawton students, and a 5,000-student virtual school that includes an evening program that expands educational access and flexibility for students and families.

Cornel Pewewardy

Pewewardy, an associate professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, is Comanche and Kiowa and a frequent presenter on Indigenous education issues.

Beginning as a recreation assistant for the then-Sequoyah Indian High School in Tahlequah in 1975, Pewewardy has served in education roles throughout the U.S. through positions with the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, N.M; the University of Oklahoma; the University of Minneapolis; Saint Paul (Minnesota) Public Schools; the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma; Cameron University; Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio; Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas; Comanche Nation College in Lawton; Portland State University in Oregon; and Kansas State University. He also founded Comanche Academy Charter School in Lawton.

“This year’s honorees are unlike any class before them in the breadth, depth and diversity of their work,” said Eugene Earsom, the president of the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame. “Education is not a monolith. This class illustrates the far-reaching yet distinct impact educators can make, and we are thrilled to induct them in the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame announces 2024 class of inductees