District overview
How Caney Valley Public Schools is funded, who decides, and what is underway
Caney Valley Public Schools is Independent School District No. 18 of Washington County, Oklahoma, serving about 685 students across an elementary school in Ochelata and a middle school and high school in Ramona. Like every Oklahoma district it is paid mainly through the state aid formula, which sends money based on how many students attend and what extra support they need, topped up by local property tax and federal grants. Buildings are paid for separately, by bonds that local voters approve and local property taxes repay. During the 2025-26 school year that ordinary arrangement came under visible strain: the district's own auditors warned the board of a roughly $400,000 general fund shortfall, the board filed two emergency supplemental appropriations within a month, and $425,000 in anonymous private donations was accepted into the general fund.
Oklahoma pays districts through a per-student formula, so the district's biggest revenue line moves with how many children enrol. Residents told the board in July 2026 that the district 'can't keep losing kids and can't keep losing teachers'.
The $3,035,000 general obligation bond sold in March 2026 was authorised at an election and is repaid through an annual property tax levy, separate from the general fund that pays salaries.
Salaries, contracts and daily operations run out of the general fund. That is the fund the auditors flagged, the fund the $425,000 in donations went into, and the fund the two Form 307 supplemental appropriations were filed against.
The board has five members, one per ward, each serving a five-year term. Terms are staggered, so normally one seat is up each year and the board is never replaced all at once.
None of this establishes that the district is insolvent or that services were cut. The auditors' 2024-2025 opinion is the standard Oklahoma regulatory-basis opinion that nearly every district in the state receives, teachers and staff were paid, and the board's own records show it acting on the problem in public rather than hiding it.
NCES Common Core of Data district directory, 2023-24; 312 at the elementary school, 150 at the middle school, 223 at the high school.
Caney Valley Elementary (Ochelata), Caney Valley Middle School and Caney Valley High School (Ramona).
The amount the district's independent auditors warned the board about, as recorded in the amended May 11 minutes.
Two gifts, $400,000 and $25,000, accepted at one special meeting.
State Form 307 filings, on May 11 and June 18, 2026.
General Obligation Combined Purpose Bonds, awarded to American Heritage Bank of Sapulpa.
Net interest cost at an average rate of 3.685771%, paid on top of the $3,035,000 principal.
Set when the board took school meals in-house. Student breakfast is free; reduced-price lunch is $0.40.
Minutes are posted for every 2026 meeting through July 6. The two August meetings had agendas only when this page was built. The district's 2025 minutes page lists twelve 2025 meetings but publishes no files for them.
Voters authorised a $3,035,000 general obligation bond, which the board sold in March 2026 to American Heritage Bank at a net interest cost of $506,609.25. The board interviewed three construction managers in April, then split 3-2 in June to hire Stout Construction after a member said the superintendent had assured contractors that Stout was pre-selected before any public vote. Tri-Arch Architecture was approved 4-1 in July. In August the board took up buying a 71-passenger school bus out of bond funds.
Voter-approved general obligation bonds repaid by a local property tax levy
The district's auditors told the board in May 2026 that the general fund faced a shortfall of about $400,000. The board approved a Form 307 supplemental appropriation on May 11 and a second on June 18, accepted $425,000 in anonymous donations into the general fund, and recorded that the superintendent admitted taking an unauthorised $500,000 loan from BancFirst on May 6 without a board vote. The vice president asked for an independent state audit. In August the board twice put an item on the agenda to take back the $1,000 raise it had added to the teacher salary schedule in July.
General fund: state aid formula, local property tax and federal grants
The district had contracted its meal service to Opaa!, whose director presented a business review to the board in January 2026. On June 1 the board voted 3-2 to run child nutrition itself from July 1, naming Regina Shivel as director and Treva Saucedo as district manager. On July 6 it set prices for the new programme: free breakfast for students, $0.40 reduced-price lunch, $4.00 full-price lunch, $3.00 adult breakfast and $5.00 adult lunch. A procurement plan for the programme went to the board in August.
Child nutrition fund: federal meal reimbursements and meal sales
Independent School District No. 18, Washington County, Oklahoma
Oklahoma holds board of education general elections on the first Tuesday in April, with a primary on the second Tuesday in February if more than two candidates file. The Ward 2 seat on the Caney Valley board, held by Yahola Webb on a term the district lists as 2022-2027, is the seat reaching the end of its term.
Official source · verified Sep 2, 2026
Built from the agendas and minutes the district publishes on its own School Board pages, plus the 2024-2025 annual financial audit it posts under Current District Audit. Enrolment and school counts come from the federal NCES Common Core of Data directory for LEA 4025470.
We read every agenda, packet, and set of minutes, and write up the decisions that affect families — each one linked to the document it came from.
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