OKLAHOMA CITY — Two Oklahoma City Board of Education members won’t seek reelection next year, clearing the way for one unopposed candidate and two other contenders running to succeed them.
Mike Shelton, of District 5 in Oklahoma City Public Schools, and Meg McElhaney, of District 7, chose not to enter the 2026 board of education elections during the three-day candidate filing window this week.
Shelton’s District 5 seat, representing Oklahoma City’s northeast side and Spencer, drew one candidate, Vernona Dismuke, 59, a longtime area resident who works at a licensed insurance agency. Her lack of opponents signals she will succeed Shelton, 52, when his term expires in April.
Two candidates filed to run for McElhaney’s District 7 seat in south Oklahoma City — University of Oklahoma student Natalie Roman, 22, and nonprofit worker Galilea Martinez, 28.
Roman and Martinez will appear on District 7 ballots in the school board general election April 7, skipping the need for a primary election Feb. 10.
McElhaney, 34, joined the board in 2019 as an appointee to fill an unexpired term and twice ran unopposed for reelection. She announced in a Nov. 28 social media post that she wouldn’t seek another four-year term.
Her tenure has spanned COVID-19, the passage of a nearly $1 billion bond, the departure of Superintendent Sean McDaniel and the board’s hiring of Jamie Polk to replace him. McElhaney also cited the revival of the district’s Legislative Breakfast — which brings together Oklahoma City students, teachers, district administrators and state lawmakers — as a highlight.
“Our district is in great hands, our bond projects are coming to life, and it feels like the right moment to make space for someone new to continue this work,” McElhaney wrote in her announcement.
Shelton said he chose not to run for reelection so he could focus on other time-consuming responsibilities, including a new job as executive director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. The former Democratic state lawmaker was appointed to the board in June 2024 to replace former board member Adrian Anderson, who resigned when moving out of District 5.
Shelton said he will continue living in northeast Oklahoma City, but his job requires frequent overnight stays in Tulsa, where the criminal justice advocacy organization is based.
Throughout his year-and-a-half tenure on the board, he’s been willing to split from the majority, even if it meant casting the lone dissenting vote. He openly expressed disagreement with a new statewide school cellphone ban, the level of pay for Polk and a policy allowing non-OKCPS residents to serve on a committee overseeing the district’s bond-funded projects. The policy permits those who live or work within the district’s boundaries to serve on the Bond Citizens Oversight Committee.
District 5 needs a vocal representative on the board, “not a rubber stamp,” Shelton told Oklahoma Voice. The area contains Frederick A. Douglass High School and Star Spencer High School and their feeder schools, where a majority of students are Black, as well as the state’s No. 1-ranked high school, Classen High School of Advanced Studies at Northeast.
“There’s a constant conflict between the people that serve in this (District 5) seat right here and the school board chair — prior to me, and if things don’t change it will continue,” Shelton said. “So, this board member needs to be strong enough to be willing to stand out by themselves and understand that you’ve got to ask questions.
“They’ve got to dig down a little deeper to make sure that our students and families are being treated fairly.”
In District 5, no contest
Dismuke said she aims to be that type of school board member. She said District 5 “needs somebody who’s going to be a voice, who has the ability to fuss, fight and argue, if you will, and have critical discussions, come to some sort of agreement and then move forward.”
“I believe that those of us who live in the district would agree that we have unique needs and we need to be heard and we need to be seen, and it would be my honor to be able to do that,” Dismuke said.
Dismuke, an Oklahoma City native and OKCPS graduate, has lived in District 5 since 1997 and plans to move to Spencer in the near future. Her three children graduated from Northeast High School, and her niece, whom she’s caring for, is a student at Frederick A. Douglass.
She said she first considered running for a school board seat 25 years ago, and the desire never went away. Her top concern, she said, is how Oklahoma City will position itself for the future, when education and workforce needs could become drastically different from what they are today.
“I’d like to work at the systemic level and be at the table in terms of helping make decisions concerning the future of education,” she said.
District 7 opening draws two candidates for election
The school district’s only contested race will take place in the majority-Hispanic area of south Oklahoma City. District 7 contains Capitol Hill High School and Southeast High School, as well as the middle and elementary schools that feed into them.
Roman, who did not return requests for comment, is a student in OU’s Gallogly College of Engineering, according to the university’s directory. Her social media accounts indicate she’s studying computer science.
Her opponent, Martinez, is an Oklahoma City native who graduated from OU with degrees in nonprofit administration and political science. After attending Capitol Hill Elementary, she finished her K-12 education in charter schools, first at Dove Science Academy and graduating high school from Harding Fine Arts Academy.
Martinez started her career by working in political campaigns before moving into policy- and election-focused nonprofits, including Voto Latino, Run For Something and Future Caucus. She is now the associate director of communications and events for the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, an organization focused on best practices for elections.
Martinez said she’s a reflection of District 7’s demographics, where a majority of students are Latino and come from low-income households. Her first language was Spanish, and she grew up in a multi-immigration-status family.
She said she hopes she can bring her career experience and lifelong perspective to the board. The goal is to become a “sounding board” for families in the diverse, multilingual school district.
“With how things are going nationally and within the state, it’s really important to me that our students find safety in our district and safety in their city and especially in their schools,” Martinez said. “And so with everything happening, I just want to make sure that there’s also an advocate that’s on the board that’s able to not only understand the experience of these students, but (is) making sure that parents feel like they can come to public schools in OKC and if they need help, be able to ask for that help, or if they need resources, be able to access those resources.”
Note: Some images in this story have been added from Oklahoma City Free Press’s archives for use in republication here only. Some live links have been added to point to our past coverage for republication here only.
Republished in partnership with Oklahoma Voice under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Oklahoma Voice is a part of States Newsroom which is a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and Twitter.
Nuria Martinez-Keel covers education for Oklahoma Voice and can be found at @NuriaMKeel on X (Twitter). She worked in newspapers for six years, more than four of which she spent at The Oklahoman covering education and courts. Nuria is an Oklahoma State University graduate.
