Oklahoma’s Fields of Accountability — Day 6
McLoud: Public School Fields, Outside Tournaments—and the Records That Remain
October 12, 2026 | McLoud, Oklahoma | Pottawatomie County | McLoud Public Schools (school-district jurisdiction)
When a tournament calendar identifies a public-school field, the record tells us that the school was listed as a venue. It does not tell us who approved the reservation, whether a fee was collected, who paid for operating costs, or how the public benefited. McLoud provides a focused test of the distance between an event listing, a written school policy, and surviving financial records.
Research standard. This episode distinguishes historical event listings, independently calculated activity, written district policy, an actual district records response, audited school-accounting context, and questions that cannot presently be answered. No person or organization is accused of improper conduct. A missing record is not proof that an event was unauthorized, a fee was unpaid, public funds were misused, or a school official failed to perform a duty.
Where Day 6 fits in the series
Days 1–5 examined Tulsa, Chickasha, Shawnee, Choctaw and Moore. Day 6 deliberately changes the governance lens: McLoud High School is a public-school facility, governed by McLoud Public Schools and its Board of Education—not by the McLoud City Council. The historical event records identify McLoud High School at 1100 W. Seikel Boulevard, McLoud, Oklahoma 74851. No separate claim about City ownership or City rental revenue is made. [S1][P2]
Years studied: 2012 and 2018 USSSA-listed activity; 2014–2020 published policy versions as a contextual comparison; 2016–2023 county-education-tax/audit context; and the district's August–September 2026 open-records correspondence. Those are different time frames and must not be conflated.
What the Hidden Valley/USSSA historical records actually show
The September 20, 2026 Baseball Heaven Sports Facilities research hub identifies the McLoud High School venue association as three historical event/division records, 28 team entries, $2,607 in calculated team-entry fees, 64 minimum games, and 128 minimum umpire-assignment equivalents for 2012–2018. The preserved row-level historical compilation reconciles the three records as follows. [S1][P2]
| Date / event | Sport and recorded division | Facility listing | Team entries | Posted fee | Calculated entry fees | Minimum games | Minimum official assignments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 14–15, 2012 — NCAA PreSeason League Tournament | Softball, 10O | McLoud High School | 9 | $0 | $0 | 17 | 34 |
| April 16–June 8, 2012 — NCAA Spring League | Softball, 10O | McLoud High School | 8 | $0 | $0 | 15 | 30 |
| April 6–8, 2018 — 13th Annual Brian Crawford Memorial | Baseball, 14AAA | Dale High School and McLoud High School | 11 | $237 | $2,607 shared-event amount | 32 | 64 |
| Historical event associations — total | 3 division rows | Direct + shared, not an allocation to McLoud alone | 28 | — | $2,607 | 64 | 128 |
Important breakdown: The two McLoud-only listings represent 17 team entries, $0 in posted-fee calculations, 32 minimum games and 64 minimum umpire assignments. The 2018 shared listing supplies the remaining 11 team entries, $2,607 in calculated entry fees, 32 minimum games and 64 assignments, but it names two schools. None of that 2018 amount can be assigned exclusively to McLoud without game-by-field, receipts or allocation records. The $0 entry-fee values for the 2012 league entries are not evidence that the league collected no money from any source; only the fee displayed in the historical event record is zero. [S1][P2][S2]
The term “NCAA” above is the historical event title as recorded in the source; it does not establish that the events were sanctioned or operated by the college-sports governing organization. The spring league's data field describing 24 event days is not proof of 24 days of play at the school or 24 days of lights, water or custodial service. [P2]
Method: Calculated Team Entry Fees = recorded team entries × publicly posted fee for that event/division. Minimum games and umpire assignments are derived from published guarantees and model fields; they are not verified completed-game or payroll records. Team entries are not necessarily unique teams. The event/venue association alone does not document exact use of each school field or an exchange of funds. [S1][S2]
A necessary disclosure about the 2018 memorial event
The 2018 event record uses the Brian Crawford Memorial name, which is connected to the researcher's family and longstanding youth-sports work. The historical USSSA entry separately lists Rick Glasser as the tournament director for that division. The event name alone does not identify the person or organization that signed a school reservation, paid any rental consideration, arranged insurance or controlled receipts. Those underlying documents have not been produced. This connection is disclosed to let readers assess the research transparently. [P2]
The actual records request: August 31 and September 14, 2026
On August 31, 2026, Kenneth Crawford submitted an Oklahoma Open Records Act request to McLoud Public Schools asking for contracts, rental agreements, permits, approval records, utility bills, fee schedules, insurance records, invoices, payments, reimbursements and field assignments for the identified 2012 and 2018 USSSA listings. The request also asked for the applicable retention schedules if older material had been destroyed. [P3]
On September 14, 2026, at 10:59 a.m., Deputy Superintendent Andrew Winters replied, copying Joe Bob Ross, on behalf of McLoud Public Schools. His response made several different representations. The distinctions are central to this investigation. [P1]
| Records category | District's September 14 reply | What can responsibly be concluded |
|---|---|---|
| USSSA / user-group agreements | “None Exist that personnel is aware of” | Personnel identified no known responsive agreement; this is not proof none ever existed. |
| Current outside baseball/softball user-group agreements | “None Exist” | District reports no current agreement in the requested category. |
| Historical 2012 and 2018 event agreements | “No records located – Beyond Retention of 7 years” | The district did not produce historical agreements and cited retention. |
| Board authorizations for the listed events | “None Exist” | No event-specific Board authorization was identified; possible administrative authority must be examined separately. |
| Rental charges, invoices, utility responsibility, reimbursement, insurance and field scheduling | Predominantly “No records located,” often with the seven-year retention explanation | The historical terms and cost allocation remain unverified, not disproved. |
| Education-sales-tax utility documents for the specific historical event periods | “None Exist” | No responsive event-period tax/utility records were reported; this does not settle what other county or district accounts show. |
A records response is an important primary record of what the district says it located. It is not automatically an audit of everything that occurred in 2012 or 2018. A seven-year retention statement likewise should be supported by the record-series classification, controlling retention schedule, and destruction information where available. The research archive contains the request and the district response, now linked in the dedicated public-records section below. [P1][P3][P4]
Public Records Accountability: The Request, McLoud Public Schools’ Response, and the Remaining Questions
Research update: October 13, 2026. This section presents the August 31, 2026 Oklahoma Open Records Act request and the September 14, 2026 district response as separate evidence from the historical tournament listings and the researcher’s analysis. The original request, district response and independent executive summary are linked below for public review.
August 31, 2026: Kenneth R. Crawford submitted a detailed request through the district’s school portal under 51 O.S. § 24A.1 et seq.
September 14, 2026: Deputy Superintendent Andrew Winters responded on behalf of McLoud Public Schools, with Joe Bob Ross copied, as documented in the archived correspondence and research summary.
October 13, 2026: The request, district-response findings and research interpretation were organized for this Day 6 public archive.
Download the Public Record — Original Documents
Review the source documents independently. The district's response is a primary record of its representations; the executive summary is independent research analysis.
- Original Oklahoma Open Records Act Request — August 31, 2026: View / download records request (PDF)
- McLoud Public Schools Official Response — September 14, 2026: View / download district response (PDF)
- Open Records Research Executive Summary: View / download research executive summary (PDF)
Which historical activities were identified?
- April 14–15, 2012: NCAA PreSeason League Tournament (historical event title).
- April 16–June 8, 2012: NCAA Spring League (historical event title).
- April 6–8, 2018: Brian Crawford Memorial, a historical event listing that names both McLoud and Dale High Schools; venue association does not prove allocation of all games or revenue to McLoud.
What records were requested?
The original request covered 14 categories of documents, asking the district to identify responsive records or state when none were located:
- USSSA and other third-party user-group agreements, including leases, permits, amendments and concession or maintenance terms.
- Current outside baseball/softball facility-use agreements, prior agreements and approval dates.
- The agreement or authorization actually in effect for each identified 2012 and 2018 event.
- Board of Education agendas, minutes, votes, packets and other approval records.
- Facility rental rates and user-fee schedules, including lighting, maintenance, custodial and admission charges.
- Invoices, receipts, deposits and payments from event organizers or user groups.
- Responsibility for electricity, lighting, water, waste, maintenance and other operating costs.
- Utility accounts, historical bills, usage and payment-source/accounting information.
- Pottawatomie County Education Sales Tax claims, warrants, purchase orders and vendor payments potentially connected to facility utilities.
- Utility and operating-cost reimbursement, surcharges, journal entries and credits.
- Insurance certificates, liability provisions and risk-allocation records.
- Correspondence and communications about the events and facility arrangements.
- Event calendars, field assignments, permits and actual game-location records.
- Identification of missing or destroyed record categories, the applicable retention schedule and destruction dates if known.
What did McLoud Public Schools report?
| Records sought | District response as summarized from the correspondence | Evidence limitation |
|---|---|---|
| USSSA/user-group agreements | “None Exist that personnel is aware of” | No known responsive agreement identified by personnel; does not establish one never existed. |
| Current outside baseball/softball agreements | “None Exist” | No current agreement reported for the requested category. |
| 2012 and 2018 event agreements | “No records located – Beyond Retention of 7 years” | No historical authorization document produced; retention cited. |
| Board authorization for identified events | “None Exist” | No event-specific Board record reported; administrative authority remains a separate question. |
| Rental rates, billing and payments | No responsive historical records located, with retention cited for fee records | Neither a rental amount nor nonpayment is established. |
| Utility responsibility, bills and reimbursements | No records located; retention cited for several historical categories | Who bore event-specific costs cannot be determined from the response. |
| Education Sales Tax utility records for the event periods | “None Exist” | No responsive records reported; does not prove or disprove other county-level expenditures. |
| Insurance, correspondence and field schedules | No records located, often citing seven-year retention | Historical risk allocation and actual field-level activity remain unverified. |
What the response establishes—and what it does not
“None exist,” “none exist that personnel is aware of,” and “no records located” are not interchangeable findings. The district’s answers document what it reported or located in response to the request. They do not independently establish that a reservation was unauthorized, a fee went unpaid, insurance was absent, or public funds were misused. Similarly, the absence of a specific Board vote does not rule out an administrative reservation process authorized by the policy in force at the time.
The original request asked the district to identify the controlling retention schedule and any known destruction dates. The district’s repeated seven-year retention explanation, as described in the archived research summary, did not identify a specific record-series schedule or destruction dates. Those remain appropriate subjects for a targeted follow-up.
Outstanding public-record questions
- What written facility-use policies and administrative approval pathways applied in 2012 and April 2018?
- What official retention schedule and record classifications support the seven-year explanation?
- Are any permanent Board minutes, county warrants, district ledger entries, or third-party copies still available?
- Were rental fees charged or waived, and how were event-related utilities and maintenance allocated?
- Which 2018 games actually occurred at McLoud rather than Dale?
Primary-document publication status: The original request PDF, the district-response correspondence and the four-page research executive summary have been supplied for this update. The three supplied WordPress Media Library URLs are provided above for public access. The response is treated as a district statement; the executive summary is the researcher’s independent interpretation, not a district-issued finding.
Archive references: [P1] McLoud Public Schools response, September 14, 2026; [P3] original request, August 31, 2026; [P4] McLoud Public Schools Open Records Research Executive Summary. See the Source Register below for document descriptions.
New primary evidence: McLoud published a facility-use policy
A publicly accessible McLoud School District Policy Manual, distributed as a 2020 document, contains GK-R1 — Use of Facility and/or Grounds, a detailed reservation form, a rate schedule, GK-R2 — Facility Usage: Athletic Camps and Similar Usage, and CFAA — Board Approval of Contracts. Unlike speculation about what policy might exist, these are identifiable written rules. [S3]
The GK-R1 material states that education has first priority, asks outside users to complete a Facilities Reservation Request, calls for district-approved adult supervision and liability insurance naming the district as an additional insured, and allows administrators to approve special or one-time events and determine fees or waivers. The form records the requester, dates, nonprofit and insurance checks, keys, hourly charges, custodial charges and whether charges were paid or waived. It lists $50 per hour for a football/baseball/softball field, plus $30 per event for custodial service, subject to the policy's categories and discretionary provisions. A separate seasonal-use clause contains wording that warrants clarification before any uniform nonprofit price is inferred. [S3]
The companion GK-R2, adopted April 14, 2016, covers athletic camps and similar usage, establishes administrative/athletic-director pathways and calls for additional money-accounting controls in specified circumstances. It includes a reference to a percentage of profits for certain outside camps. The research does not assume the camp-specific provision applies to an ordinary baseball tournament without the district's interpretation and the relevant historical version. [S3]
Another policy, CFAA, adopted July 15, 2014, says contracts must go to the Board of Education for a vote and approval. Importantly, GK-R1 also permits certain one-time administrative approvals. Thus, an event may not have required an individually voted Board contract if handled under a valid administrative reservation procedure; whether that happened in 2018 is unresolved. The record contains no basis to accuse a particular board member or administrator of disobeying policy. [S3]
Crucial date limitation: The online manual is a 2020 snapshot. GK-R1 lists a 2014 adoption and revisions in 2016 and December 13, 2018. The April 2018 memorial predates that last revision; the 2012 league entries predate the policy's displayed 2014 adoption. This study does not apply the 2020 text retroactively to 2012 or assume all 2020 terms governed April 2018. The signed or certified historical versions in force on each event date are still needed. [S3]
What can be tested without presuming a violation?
The published policy gives an orderly set of questions: Was a request form completed? Which administrator approved it? Was a fee waived or charged, and under which policy version? Was insurance received? Who assigned fields and handled cleanup? Did the district keep copies, and did the retention clock later expire? An administrative approval could have been valid even if no Board vote exists. A zero-dollar USSSA listing could still coincide with a lawful rental charge—or no charge under an authorized exception. No answer should be invented.
Audits and the Pottawatomie County Education Sales Tax: keep the years separate
McLoud's publicly available June 30, 2023 audited financial statements explain the Pottawatomie County Education Sales Tax adopted by voters November 10, 2015, effective July 1, 2016. The audit describes a county-held school-district fund, allocation by school average daily attendance, and a process in which districts submit approved vendor invoices to the county for direct payment. It also contains separate school activity-fund schedules, including baseball and softball lines. These are school financial-accounting records, not evidence that either historical USSSA event paid or did not pay a rental fee. [S4]
The broader Pottawatomie County Education Tax research also reports that a July 2023 county action approved McLoud's continued use of education-tax funds for recurring providers, including OG&E, ONG and McLoud Water. That is evidence about the district's later operating-funding context as described in the published case study; the exact 2023 county agenda, minutes and individual vouchers should be inspected independently before making transaction-level conclusions. [S5][S6]
Two chronological safeguards matter: The 2012 McLoud USSSA listings occurred before the county education tax took effect. They cannot be charged to a tax that did not yet exist. The 2018 listing occurred after the original tax took effect, but no school-field meter reading, event-specific utility invoice, corresponding county vendor payment or reimbursement entry has been linked to it. The audit and later utility approvals do not fill that gap. [S4][S5][P1]
The district's September 2026 reply says no records exist in the specific event-period education-tax category it was asked about. It would be inaccurate to convert that answer into proof of either a taxpayer subsidy or an absence of subsidy. The right test is transaction-by-transaction: field; actual games and lighting hours; service address or meter; invoice; school/county account; facility-use charges; and any offsetting operator payment. [P1][S4]
Individual actions, Board decisions and structural conditions
Documented administrative action: Deputy Superintendent Andrew Winters provided the September 14 records response and copied Joe Bob Ross. That documents a response to a public-information request; it is not a finding about either official's conduct in 2012 or 2018. [P1]
Documented collective governance: The publicly posted policy manual identifies Board-adopted district-wide policies and revision dates. The research has not identified or verified a particular member's vote on the 2012 or 2018 event or a specific event-level contract. It would be inappropriate to invent one or assign the district's collective decisions to a named elected official. [S3][P1]
Structural conditions: A public-school campus serves students first, but it may also support community recreation; outside events create additional questions about field scheduling, insurance, cleaning, utility costs, equitable access and public accounting. Historic retention may prevent later reconstruction even where the original approvals were proper. A policy that allows administrative waivers is not itself improper; it becomes more transparent when forms and reasons are preserved consistently.
How Public Decisions Shape a Healthy Community-Based Program
A strong community-based program is not measured exclusively by the number of traveling teams or a weekend's advertised economic impact. For McLoud, the published rules suggest how good public decisions could support families; the surviving records do not yet establish the program outcomes.
| Community factor | Documented governance lever | Reasonably supported effect / unanswered test |
|---|---|---|
| Affordability | Published field rates, nonprofit-use provisions and authority to waive fees. | Waivers might lower family charges, or inconsistent application could cause unequal costs. Need actual rental charges and participant registration prices. |
| Local league stability | School activities have priority; district may authorize outside events. | Reliable seasonal calendars can protect school teams and neighborhood leagues. Need historical and current allocation calendars. |
| Volunteers | Adult-supervision and insurance verification requirements. | Clear expectations can help recruit and protect volunteers; excessive, poorly explained paperwork could discourage participation. Need practical compliance materials. |
| Equitable access | Reservation forms and stated consideration of one-time uses. | Written, consistently applied criteria can improve access for small nonprofits, independent organizers, girls programs and adaptive recreation. Need approval/denial and waiver patterns. |
| Transparency | Fields for reservation, payment, keys, insurance and fee-waiver records. | A complete audit trail allows comparison of operator treatment; old missing forms prevent retrospective confirmation. Need a modern public-facing policy and retention practice. |
| Reinvestment | Published facility/custodial charges and school activity accounting. | Documented cost recovery could maintain fields and support school athletics; no reinvestment amount is established for the historical events. Need receipts, expenses and spending records. |
| Competition and choice | Administrators have authority to review special uses. | Public criteria can allow multiple responsible providers while protecting school scheduling. Need application histories and decision standards. |
| Player development | School-controlled playing space can support age-appropriate activities. | Better access might give local children more practice and affordable playing options; the historical event data alone do not measure development. |
| Long-term sustainability | The audit describes county education funding mechanisms and district accounting. | Predictable infrastructure funding plus transparent cost allocation can help preserve facilities without obscuring who pays event-specific expenses. Need school-level capital/maintenance plans and facility-specific utility data. |
Evidence boundary: These are causal pathways and oversight tests, not findings that McLoud was affordable, inequitable, mismanaged, well managed or financially subsidized for any particular event.
Records Still Needed
- Historical policy editions, including the exact facility-use, rental, insurance and approval rules in effect April–June 2012 and April 6–8, 2018, with effective dates for each revision.
- Retention authority, including the state or district schedule and record-series citations behind the September 2026 “seven years” explanation, plus any actual destruction or disposition logs. Approved school-board minutes may have different retention treatment from temporary reservation forms.
- Authorizations and schedules: any preserved administrative approvals, forms, facility reservation books, calendars, coaching records or third-party copies for all three historical listings; actual game-by-field schedules for the 2018 two-school event.
- Charges and consideration: historical fee sheets, invoices, waived-fee documentation, checks, receipts, bank deposits, concessions/gate arrangements and any noncash services accepted in lieu of rent.
- Insurance and maintenance: liability certificates, incident/risk allocation, custodial rosters, field preparation, damage deposits, utility and lighting rules.
- County and school financial trails: site-specific utility service addresses and meters, 2018 billing-period invoices, county education-tax purchase orders or direct-vendor vouchers, and any reimbursements or allocations; do not infer the funding source from 2023 or 2026 records alone.
- 2018 school and county board materials: permanently retained minutes, agendas or action indexes sufficient to determine whether the arrangement required a Board contract or was eligible for administrative approval.
- Current comparative controls: the district's current GK-R1/GK-R2 revisions, recent outside-user reservation samples with protected personal information redacted, waiver criteria, equity/access reporting and plans for consistent archiving.
Right of Response
McLoud Public Schools, the Board of Education, administrators past and present, listed USSSA directors Rick Hill and Rick Glasser, Dale Public Schools (for the separate 2018 shared-site listing), and Pottawatomie County officials are invited to supply documents, dates, amendments, explanations or corrections. In particular, a historical approval form, an insurance certificate, a fee-waiver entry, a payment record or a field schedule could materially improve the accuracy of this story. The September 14 reply is included accurately as the district's documented response; this draft does not claim that additional responses have been requested or refused. Corrections should be appended with dates and source material.
Conclusions: a recordkeeping question, not a misconduct verdict
Established: McLoud High School is associated with three publicly reconstructed USSSA records in 2012 and 2018. The district answered a detailed 2026 records request. A written district policy manual exists, providing concrete reservation, insurance and fee standards, though precise historical versions are needed. A published FY2023 audit explains the county education-tax mechanism. [S1][S3][S4][P1]
Calculated: The combined McLoud-associated record totals 28 team entries, three division rows, $2,607 in calculated entry fees, 64 minimum games and 128 assignment-equivalents. The entire positive fee total is associated with an event listing both Dale and McLoud, not $2,607 proved to have been earned at McLoud. [S1][P2]
Unresolved: Whether each event had an administrative authorization, rental or waiver; who paid operating costs; which actual games occurred at McLoud in 2018; and whether any event-related utility cost was offset or supported by a specific public account. [P1]
Conclusion: The responsible public-interest question is whether school-district approval and financial policies can be linked to actual reservations and transactions—not whether the absence of old records should be treated as proof of wrongdoing.
Day 6 closing question: When public-school fields welcome outside youth-sports programs, can the district demonstrate, with records appropriate to their time, that the arrangement respected school priorities, treated families fairly, and protected the public investment?
Following the money. Following the facilities. Following the decisions. Following the public record.
Source Register and Evidence Inventory
Public / published sources
- [S1] Baseball Heaven, Sports Facilities — September 20, 2026 reconciled McLoud High School dataset card (2012–2018; three event associations). https://www.baseballheaven.net/sports-facilities/
- [S2] Preserved USSSA event identifiers, originally included in the event-level research records. 2012 preseason
eventID=93213; 2012 spring leagueeventID=93216; 2018 memorialeventID=295438. Historic deep links, which may no longer resolve in the modern USSSA site: https://usssa.com/baseball/event_home/?eventID=93213 ; https://usssa.com/baseball/event_home/?eventID=93216 ; https://usssa.com/baseball/event_home/?eventID=295438 . The underlying archival data, not the present availability of those URLs, supports the row details. - [S3] McLoud School District, Policy Manual (2020-distributed PDF), especially CFAA, GK-R1 and GK-R2 (the latter sections near PDF pages 520–524). https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/931332/MCLOUD_SCHOOL_DISTRICT_POLICY_MANUAL_2020.pdf
- [S4] Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector, McLoud School District No. 1-I Audited Financial Statements, June 30, 2023, especially note 6 (County Sales Tax Fund) and the activity-fund schedules. https://www.sai.ok.gov/olps/uploads/mcloud_audit_2023_uj1h.pdf
- [S5] Baseball Heaven, Pottawatomie County Education Tax Case Study (research context, facility/site allocation rules, county vendor-payment framework). https://www.baseballheaven.net/pottawatomie-county-education-tax-case-study/
- [S6] Baseball Heaven, Pottawatomie County Education Tax — Official Documentation Analysis (underlying audit/election/board source inventory). https://www.baseballheaven.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2026/08/Pottawatomie_County_Education_Tax_Official_Documentation_Analysis.pdf
- [S7] McLoud Public Schools, Board documents/2025–2026 agendas and minutes catalog (available board-archive access; not a specific 2012/2018 vote). https://www.mcloudschools.us/documents/school-board/minutes-and-agendas/2025-2026/18741056
Archived primary / research materials — availability limits
- [P1] Email from Andrew Winters, McLoud Public Schools, to Kenneth Crawford, September 14, 2026, 10:59 a.m., subject McLoud Public Schools — Response to Records Request, two pages; held in the research archive. Public copy: district response PDF.
- [P2] Archived Hidden Valley/USSSA row-level research compilation, event/division identifiers and modeled fields for 2012 and 2018; also reconciled against the published September 20 Sports Facilities hub. Stored in the research library, not a municipal financial statement.
- [P3] Kenneth Crawford, Oklahoma Open Records Act request sent through school portal, August 31, 2026, requesting user agreements, fees, utilities, education-tax payment evidence, insurance, board authorizations, schedules and retention details; research archive; public request PDF.
- [P4] McLoud Public Schools — Open Records Research Executive Summary, prepared September 2026; secondary analysis of [P1] and [P3], archived. The district's email is the controlling record for its representations. Read the executive summary PDF.
Publication note: This article is independent research, not an official McLoud Public Schools, USSSA, Pottawatomie County or Oklahoma State Auditor publication. Source documents are identified so that the factual statements, calculations and remaining questions can be independently tested. The original event and public-facility records should control over any analytical interpretation.