zThe Newberg Public School District is facing a dire reckoning. One need only look at the calendar of school board events planned for May–a series of budget meetings and special sessions–to see that all is not right with the district. Budget shortfalls, announced at last week’s board meeting, come on top of the recently-publicized lawsuit against Superintendent Stephen Phillips, who failed to protect a child from a predatory teacher while Phillips was leading the Jewell School District.
Phillips’ long-time principle of toxic positivity turns out to mostly just be toxic, especially when his administration assured the board and constituents that he had turned around a financially failing district. (The district was not financially failing when Philips was hired. He did not turn the district around.)
In fact, at a January 2023 Newberg school district board meeting, board directors fawned about how far Phillips and his CFO, Heather Bixby, had resurrected the district budget, especially when other nearby districts were failing. Some examples:
Director Shelby Kolb: I couldn’t believe what you’ve had to do and what–what you (Bixby) have done, and how far you’ve brought us. And so, much thanks.
Director Trevor DeHart: [It’s] always hard when you haven’t been held accountable, or haven’t been held to a high— higher standard and processes — those best-known methods. And she’s doing that and it’s being received well. And it’s going to make — well, I mean, we’re going to have an excess, it sounds like, going into next year. And I — and I just applaud you, Heather, for the great work that you’re doing. And–and, keep up the good work.
Board President Dave Brown: Well, Dr. Phillips just hired a lot of good people. But he probably didn’t do any better than he did with Heather. So we just — we’ll leave it at that. So, thank you very much for the great work.
CFO Heather Bixby: I think that the current administration has been phenomenal to guide in prudent public spending. And so, instead of being careless in how money is spent and just thinking that it is an open door to spend all the money that we get, people have adjusted really well to me telling people, “No.” They’ve adjusted well to me implementing policies on what is acceptable for certain grants or student body funds. I mean, there’s–there’s a whole gamut of things that I have to oversee to make sure that we’re being fiscally responsible.
And a bit later: …when people understand those guidelines are out there for us, those rules are out there for us, they appreciate having a little guidance and so we, current administration, myself included, don’t have any problem guiding them to be more fiscally responsible.
However, the Newberg District Office has not been forthcoming with the public about what’s really happening with the budget. The current administration has not been prudent, has not been phenomenal, has not been fiscally conservative: all those values that Bixby et al. continued to tout up to, and beyond, the changed board last May.
The budget meeting on May 7 gives us a good sense of the questions we need to be asking this board, and in particular the Newberg Public Schools District Office leadership. At that meeting, several budget committee members drew attention to these problematic accounting issues:
- Phillips proposed using some of the district’s remaining bond money for operational expenses. At the meeting, he was told this use of bond funds is not possible, which seemed to be a surprise to him. He admits that they “planned differently” for use of those funds. (Someone running such a large district, and with a lucrative contract, would know better about how those funds should be used.)
- The district has a significant budgeting shortfall, given falling enrollments and projections that were aspirational. As a result, they will have to give $1.2 million back to the state, money that will not be used for instruction, hiring and retaining staff (at least the ones who are still here after the mass exodus of 2022), or curriculum. Although Bixby said there will not be a significant number of RIFs (Reduction in Force) word on the street is different, and teachers have been told that RIFs are coming. Once again, the students lose.
- Several years ago, former Superintendent Joe Morelock had set aside $700,000 to cover an anticipated increase in PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) over the next few years. Bixby et al. took the PERS money meant for the increase and put it back into the general budget. It appears the money Morelock saved to build an ending fund balance and start planning for the future has been spent, and the district will need to find money to cover the PERS fund going forward.
- May saw the district owing the state more money than the state monthly payment for the district. This is a big accounting mistake, and there’s no way they didn’t know they were going to have to pay the money back, yet never said anything about this at the last budget meeting when income for the remainder of the year was talked about.
- A committee member pointed out that there was $100,000 missing from the budget, needed for professional development and legally part of the NEA contract. Even though the NEA is currently under contract negotiations at present, the district office forgot to include this money in the budget. Bixby’s response was that “It’s hard to catch all these things,” though this is quite literally part of her job.
- Substantial violations in the district’s nutrition department last year (thanks, in large part, to Phillips’ hiring of nutrition director Bryan Quinn) have resulted in what we think is multiple fines. The district seems to be doing everything they can to NOT share information about these fines, so we are unclear as to the total number of fines and total amount. We are fairly certain there was a fine of over $100,000 resulting from Quinn not properly reporting potential allergens in school food. At the May 7 board meeting, after much prodding, Bixby admitted there was a $35,000 fine stemming from last summers’ food program. What other fines has our district incurred?
- The lucrative administrative contracts themselves, especially those for Phillips and Deputy Superintendent Scott Lindenberger, add almost half a million dollars to the budget, and questions remain about whether those contracts should have been awarded to people who are struggling to keep a district afloat; who are the subject of multiple complaints; and who are under investigation in other districts.
Because of these and other budget problems, Newberg’s Chief Financial Officer, Heather Bixby, has asked the Oregon Association of School Board Officials to come in and go over Newberg’s financial books. The person who once bragged about being more fiscally responsible than the prior administration (who managed to significantly increase our ending fund balance AND put away a good chunk of money for the looming PERS increase) needs OASBO to come in and “fix” our books and tell us how much money we really have. We should have the report tonight.
Hopefully, the OASBO official will bring to light the significant issues that are currently being papered over with toxic positivity, and the board can hire a new administration that doesn’t come with so much baggage, and with so little ability to run a district well.
Tonight’s budget meeting is open to the public, although there will be no public comments. Keeping our officials accountable can be one way to assure that Newberg’s children have the education they deserve.
Newberg Neighbors for a Better Community 