After the meeting, Barresi told reporters she would not resign.

“I understand I have failed at politics, but I am not going to fail at my obligation to the children of Oklahoma,” she said.

She also pledged to provide her successor with “robust transition” assistance even though “that opportunity was not afforded to me by my predecessor.”

Barresi, who was defeated in June’s primary election, recently created a new position — assistant state superintendent of accreditation and compliance — and hired the husband of her general counsel Kim Richey to fill it.

Richey’s husband, Larry Birney, is a career law enforcement official who made headlines statewide when he resigned as executive director for the Council of Law Enforcement Education and Training, or CLEET, in Ada in 2011 after three years there. The resignation came after a formal panel was formed to investigate his conduct.

He worked previously as an officer with the San Antonio Police Department for 35 years.

Baxter, in his remarks, said the nature of Birney’s exit from CLEET was yet another one of his reasons for questioning the hire. But he made a point of saying how much he respected Richey as an attorney and appreciated her legal counsel to the board.