Velta Reed-Johnston began her career as a home economics teacher in Beaver. She also taught in Forgan, Washington and Harrah. While in Harrah, she completed her master’s degree while splitting her time as a graduate assistant and working with the Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education, now the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. After completing her administrative certification, she began breaking the glass ceiling by becoming the first female administrator in Harrah Public Schools.
Her experience as a principal in Harrah paved the way to helping build Eastern Oklahoma Technology Center from the ground up. In 1979, Johnston was hired as the assistant superintendent of secondary programs and was responsible for implementing and overseeing developing new programs, curricula, policy manuals and transportation schedules; hiring industry experts to teach; buying equipment; and coordinating transcripting practices with sending schools. “We started with a hill and ended up with a school,” she said.
In 1984, she became the first female superintendent in the Oklahoma CareerTech system as she stepped into her new role at Western Technology Center in Burns Flat, again taking on the role of builder. The challenge this time was to renovate the recently acquired Clinton Sherman Air Force Base. To garner the $2.6 million dollars needed to renovate this property, Johnston worked to pass a bond issue, wrote a grant and used every financial resource available. The old military base had asbestos-contaminated barracks that needed to be torn down, and other facilities had to be renovated for educational purposes and ADA compliance.
Widowed in her early 30s, Johnston raised her two stepchildren when their mother passed away. When Johnston was diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized for weeks at a time for chemotherapy, she conducted many meetings from her hospital bed with her support team from Western Technology Center and Oklahoma CareerTech.
Johnston retired as Pioneer Technology Center superintendent in 1997 after more than 30 years serving students and staff across the Oklahoma CareerTech system. She served on boards and commissions throughout her career. She was president of Oklahoma Women in Education Administration and served on the Commission on Future Educational Leadership. She was recognized as the National Educator of the Year in Vocational Technical Education and also received the Francis Tuttle Career Excellence Award from the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education.
In retirement, she supports her local school district and technology center, Canadian Valley Technology Center. As a resident of Spanish Cove Retirement Center, she serves the center’s town hall, finance committee and building and policy committees and takes on other volunteer opportunities. She ensures her retirement community is engaged in local education and sees the vision for the future of their community. She has also been instrumental in encouraging several successful partnerships between Spanish Cove and CV Tech that benefit the programs and students involved.
She was inducted into the CareerTech Hall of Fame in 2024.
