Two weeks ago, thanks to a FOIA request, we learned that 197 educators have left Newberg schools in the last two years. A persistent narrative in our community is that this exodus follows national trends, and also that those who resigned, leaving Newberg for other districts, showed a lack of resilience and dedication to children.
Attend any school board meeting (and we have), and you will no doubt hear claims that “The district is fully staffed!” and “The district is finally doing great!” and “We are achieving academic excellence!” And while board supporters clap and offer fealty to the board in glowing public comments, the reality on the ground is far less positive.
But don’t take our word for it. We’ve already shared the story of a teacher, who reflected on Director Dave Brown’s leadership, and the toxic environment the board has created; we heard from a parent volunteer, who’s seen special education students suffer without appropriate services.
Today, we are sharing the story of a first-year teacher who has decided to leave the district, her dreams about helping students in Title I schools tarnished by leadership that has not provided her—or her students—the resources needed to succeed. “We are working with a failing system with insufficient supports in place,” the teacher admits. “We’re not set up for success, not with specialists spread so thin and educators taking the brunt of this reality.”
Having recently graduated from college, this teacher came to Newberg hoping to make a difference with marginalized students. She feels affinity for her colleagues and the families with whom she works, and it bothers her when peer educators are unfairly maligned for not doing enough. As she talked with us about classroom activities she did recently to help prepare students for state testing, we could hear her passion for students and her creative efforts to help students achieve positive academic outcomes.
While the current school board has taken aim at Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), insisting that teachers need to focus on “reading, writing, and math,” this teacher realizes that academic success can only be achieved when students are socially and emotionally regulated, and that it’s impossible to focus solely on academic basics if other basic needs are not also met.
Students are struggling: she often has to clear her classroom because of dysregulated students who pose a (physical) risk to other students (and teachers). Without enough support staff, the work of keeping students safe too often falls to her. There is a cycle of students exploding, getting sent to the office, being sent back to class, just to do it all over again. Attempts to get struggling students the services they need go unfulfilled, because there is a skeletal crew of counselors and specialists able to intervene. This is an unsustainable model that leaves staff members overworked and prone to burnout.
It’s easy to decide that struggling students are “bad kids” or that they have “bad parents,” without recognizing the underlying causes of so much classroom disruption. And those underlying causes cannot be addressed if there aren’t the supports in place—both in our schools and in our communities—to provide assistance when and where it’s needed. “It’s disheartening to hear these are bad kids,” she said. “They aren’t provided the support they need, and it’s hard as their teacher to captain the ship when the entire system is sinking.”
In the midst of so much chaos, she wonders about the current board’s focus on parents’ rights and their insistence that they are “protecting” kids from indoctrination. She admits that classrooms aren’t safe—but not in the way the board imagines. Without more resources to help struggling children and the educators who help them, classrooms aren’t safe places because of physical threats and the potential of trauma.
“When they talk about parental input and student safety, I have to wonder whose parental input they are talking about,” she said. “Which students are you trying to keep safe? And what are you protecting them from?” She has observed that some parents in the Hispanic community also feel unsafe, “scared to say anything because of how they’ve been responded to.”
At the April 11 meeting, Director Renee Powell insisted “we all want a positive, thriving, and a growing school district with children and educators who enjoy coming to school in order to learn and teach, and who feel respected.”
The teacher agrees with this sentiment and desire, yet there remains a sore disconnect. “I’m a positive person,” she said. “But I cry on the way to school every day.”
Like her colleagues, though, she “still gets up and still goes to work, because I love the students. If I didn’t care I wouldn’t see this through to the end of the semester.”
School board directors have consistently suggested that some teachers—especially those choosing to leave the schools—don’t care. “We all care,” she concluded, “and hate hearing that we don’t.”
If we can agree that, “we all want a positive, thriving, and a growing school district with children and educators who enjoy coming to school in order to learn and teach, and who feel respected,” we need sustainable change and action.
We have the power to make Powell’s vision of a better district a reality. Newberg can once again be a place where educators are supported and can focus on students, and where students can get the support they need to flourish. This election really is about that—and not the political ideologies Powell and her compatriots fear.
Do you work in the Newberg school district or did the Newberg school board compel you to leave this district? We would love to hear your story, and can publish it anonymously on our site. Your voices, and your words, matter to us, and to the transformation of our school board. Feel free to email us at betternsdschoolboard@gmail.com.Newberg deserves better.Your vote on May 16 matters.
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