At the Newberg School Board meeting last night (April 11), Director Renee Powell used her public comment time to excoriate the Newberg Educational Association, the local teachers’ union that has endorsed five candidates for the school board, none of whom is currently on the board. Director Powell railed against the NEA, noting that she had talked with many teachers who don’t support the NEA’s endorsements and their leftist agenda.
The screed included all the buzzwords currently prized by politicians to stir up fear of some progressive boogeyman: about control, and parents’ rights, and teachers with malformed agendas. Neither Powell, nor her fellow directors, have said much of substance about how they will support all educators, especially as the district makes dramatic changes in start times and in moving to a trimester system.
As has been increasingly common, the boards’ comment did little to show what kind of substantive support they want to offer the teachers or the students they serve. Instead, the board and superintendent have used their platforms for airing grievances, a Festivus tradition carried into every board meeting the last two years.
Which makes it difficult to know what significant policies the incumbents–or new “the parent’s choice” candidates–hope to institute in Newberg schools, beyond the vague platitudes of the voters’ pamphlet. (We’ve already covered the factually-challenged candidates’ statements in the voters’ pamphlet.)
Turns out, the candidates’ websites don’t do much good, either. For the parent’s choice candidates, the same vague information from the voters’ pamphlet has been cut and pasted into their websites, with little more substance than the same vague promises of academic excellence, fiscal responsibility, and parental involvement. We don’t know the candidates’ plans for achieving these goals, nor the policy changes they might institute. On incumbent Raquel Peregrino de Brito’s site, there’s little more than pablum for the right, even though Peregrino de Brito has been a board director for over a year, and should have a record of decision-making that she’d want to run on.
This weekend’s candidate forum might be the best–and maybe the only–place to hear what the incumbents’ specific plans are for serving the district, as well as the plans of the two other parent’s choice candidates, running for the first time. It will be interesting to see what all of the candidates have to say, what policies they are imagining, and how they might distinguish themselves from the other people in the field.
This non-partisan event, hosted by the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, April 15, starts at 1 p.m. in Hoover 105 at George Fox University. Being an informed voter is an important part of sustaining a fragile democracy. This event is a good test of whether any of the candidates can move beyond buzzwords and fear-mongering to a substantive and civil discussion on policy. For the good of our community, and for our children, this event should be worth your time.
Newberg Neighbors for a Better Community 