The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board has scheduled a noon meeting Friday, Oct. 23, to reconsider a proposed Jewish charter school, despite a new attorney general opinion concluding that the board has no authority to hold another vote on the revised application.

The board scheduled a special meeting for noon Oct. 23 at the state Capitol, according to Oklahoma Voice. The meeting agenda lists a revote on the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation's application to open an online school teaching both Jewish religious beliefs and secular subjects.

Ben Gamla's application failed Oct. 12 in a 4-3 vote. It fell one vote short of the five required under Oklahoma law for the board to take final action. Member Amber Wise was absent. Another seat is vacant.

Board attorney A.J. Ferate said the 4-3 result left the application unresolved. "There was no final action in a 4-3 vote either way," Ferate told Oklahoma Voice. "The function is that the board will make another attempt to meet five votes one way or the other at its meeting."

State law outlines a two-vote process for online charter school applications. Board Chair Brian Shellem, an Edmond businessman, initially told reporters after the Oct. 12 vote that the rejection was final and Ben Gamla's founders would need to submit a new application.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond reached the same conclusion. His office said in an Oct. 15 statement that any new application from Ben Gamla would have to start over and could apply only to a later school year. Drummond then dismissed without prejudice a lawsuit he had filed against the board in March.

The legal path has been tangled. The board first rejected Ben Gamla in March 2026. The school's founders sued in Oklahoma City federal court. A federal district judge ruled Sept. 24 that a charter school cannot be denied solely because of its religious character, prompting the board to reconsider.

That second vote on Oct. 12 still fell short. Three members voted no: William Pearson, Marshall Baker and Courtney Anderson, who serves as a designee of State Superintendent Lindel Fields. Pearson said opposition from Oklahoma's Jewish community weighed heavily in his decision, according to the Journal Record.

Fewer than 9,000 Oklahoma residents are Jewish, about 0.21% of the state's population, according to Oklahoma Watch. The Jewish Federations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa oppose the school.

Enrollment projections have also drawn scrutiny. Ben Gamla's application estimated hundreds of students. Founder Peter Deutsch told a Tulsa rabbi in an email that the school would open with just 10 students, Oklahoma Watch reported. Deutsch said in an open letter to Shellem that he reduced projected enrollment because parents fear the school could be shut down by litigation, The Oklahoman reported.

Drummond cited those shifting numbers in his statement, saying the school's budget and financial plans were built on several hundred students and that an applicant expecting just 10 had not shown the community need or financial viability state law requires.

The Oct. 23 agenda also includes a possible appeal of the federal court ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Deutsch urged the board to file that appeal before an Oct. 26 deadline, warning that failure to act would effectively force Ben Gamla to withdraw.

A prior attempt to open a state-funded Catholic virtual charter school, St. Isidore of Seville, was struck down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that ruling on a 4-4 tie.

Public comment will not be allowed at the special meeting, the agenda states.