Incumbent Dirk O’Hara is running unopposed for Norman Public Schools Board of Education Office 1 in the Feb. 10 municipal election.
Views, platform
Raised in Tuttle, O’Hara is a husband and father of three. He works in managerial roles at several companies including Rambling Oaks Courtyard, NSC Solutions LLC and Valir Health and co-owns Tribute Memorial Care Southwest.
O’Hara left the state for about four years after earning a juris doctorate and master’s in business administration from OU in 1995, but upon returning to Oklahoma he decided to leave the corporate world to begin a career in health care. Coming back to the state inspired O’Hara to get involved in the Norman community.
O’Hara joined the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma, a youth mentoring program, and worked with the organization for 15 years. He transitioned from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma to the NPS Board of Education in 2014.
This would be O’Hara’s third elected term on the board. He ran unopposed in 2016 and again against Pixie Quigley in 2021.
“The desire to serve the community, children, teachers and create the best future for all students is why I seek to continue on the Norman Public Schools Board of Education,” O’Hara’s campaign website reads.
O’Hara advocates for transparency and communication between himself and the Norman community.
“I understand the sacrifices of time away from family, purchasing supplies from a personal savings account, struggling to reach kids who have suffered immense trauma or speak English as a second language, teaching to overcrowded classrooms all while smiling and creating a positive learning environment every day,” O’Hara’s website reads. “This makes serving on the board a personal mission.”
In this upcoming term, O’Hara hopes to prioritize student mental health and changing the public mindset of Oklahoma education.
Mental health
During his time on the board, O’Hara has helped strengthen the relationship between NPS and Norman Regional Health System by hiring medical professionals to work in Norman schools.
“We have learned that bringing healthcare into our buildings give access to those who need it the most. It is time to do the same thing for mental healthcare,” O’Hara wrote on his campaign website.
In a phone call with OU Daily Jan. 27, O’Hara attributed his prioritization of mental health care for students to his background in health care. He believes mental health checkups should become frequent in schools.
“We should be having mental checkups as much as we should be having physical checkups. Just knowing that from health care … it’s not something that you necessarily learn, it’s something that you see as your kids go through school and if you watch the kids around them,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara also highlighted the importance of reminding kids of their importance and their potential.
“When you look at the mission of Norman Public Schools, which is to prepare and inspire all students to reach their full potential, many kids don’t even know what their potential is,” O’Hara said. “That sounds like an easy statement, ‘get them to reach their full potential,’ but it’s helping them to find their potential because a lot of kids don’t know their worth.
“They don’t know just how much they can do and how much of an impact they are going to make in this world.”
Accomplishments, future programs
O’Hara said he would want to highlight Norman’s educational accomplishments during the upcoming term.
“We focus on the failures of public education within the state of Oklahoma instead of the successes. Granted, we’ve got to do better in all ways, but in this state we kind of lump all schools and all districts together when we measure them, …” O’Hara said. “To me, it might be more of a PR thing with public education as our biggest issue — of just making sure people understand what a world-class organization that we are.”
O’Hara wants to recognize and commemorate success stories within the district such as the Early Learning Center, Spanish Language Academy and the Oklahoma Aviation Academy that is currently in construction at Max Westheimer Airport.
O’Hara also hopes to open an education academy for high school students who are aspiring teachers.
“People who aspire to be teachers, educators, could start that track their freshman year at either one of our high schools and by the time they would graduate, they would have an associate’s degree and be able to be admitted directly into the college of education at OU or another institution of higher learning,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara also plans to establish a health care academy for high school students who want to enter the medical field.
“I’d also like to see us form a health care academy that would start focusing on nurses to where people that want to get into the health care field could graduate high school with an associate’s (registered nurse) degree,” O’Hara said.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Natalie Armour. Vanessa Essien and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.