Category: Uncategorized

Raise Your Voice Now!

Anyone who watched Monday night’s school board meeting knows that the district administration are stonewalling everyone: teachers, classified staff, parents, the community. Superintendent Steven Phillips and his deputy, Scott Lindenberger, lacked the courage to show up for the meeting,citing sickness (moral malaise, perhaps?), and their silence was deafening, especially after classified union rep Jen Edmonds asked pointed questions about the budget that Phillips wasn’t there to answer. (The Chief Financial Officer, Heather Bixby, wasn’t there either, though no one has told us where she went, another example of unnecessary silence.)

And now, we’ve heard that the communications position, reduced to .5 FTE a month ago, is going to be cut entirely by June 30. This is appalling: at a time when Phillips needs to be communicating clearly and often with school stakeholders, he has decided to cut the one position that is vital to informing parents, teachers, and community members about what will happen in our district, which is in serious crisis. 

The roles that should be cut are Phillips’ and Lindenberger’s own, since they caused this mess, then stonewalled their community. And now, they seem to lack the courage and integrity to do the right thing: resign, without demanding any kind of buyout.  After all, why should they get ANY compensation for causing a wreck that might take a generation to repair?

In the midst of this silence, it’s time for our voices to be heard.

On Monday, June 10, we are planning a protest ahead of that night’s budget meeting. Please plan to meet at the District Office, at 4:30 p.m,. to protest Phillips (and Lindenberger’s) continued employment by Newberg schools. Bring signs and friends! We need to let Newberg know that they haven’t been told the truth. (They haven’t been told much of anything, to be honest.)

If you cannot attend the rally, please consider signing our petition and sharing it, one other way our voices can be heard.

In The Midst of Silence, We Need Your Voice: SIGN THE PETITION!

In January 2023, the Newberg-Dundee School Board couldn’t believe their good fortune–and they let their constituents know. According to comments made at that meeting, their specially-picked superintendent, Stephen Phillips, had hired all the best people, who were saving the district scads of money, communicating with astounding transparency, and transforming the way finances operated in the district, since–according to members of the board–the previous administration wasn’t up to the job. 

At least that’s what they said. Here’s a sampling of their comments from the January 2023 board meeting:

I really appreciate the communication that you’re doing with all the staff and everybody. I think that’s just great, having that open communication. So, thank you for all your work. (Director Renee Powell, expressing her gratitude to Heather Bixby) 

And, you know, that’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. Yeah.  (Director Trevor DeHard, expressing his gratitude to Heather Bixby)

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. (Board Chair Dave Brown, expressing his gratitude to Heather Bixby)

By now, we all know that these accolades were premature. Not even sixteen months later, we’ve learned that our district is facing a catastrophic budget crisis, including a $14 million deficit heading into next year, on top of a $1.5 million deficit this year, one that needs to be covered before June ends. 

Rather than being transparent about the budget, communicating with stakeholders, or using best practices, Phillips and his crew are walking into the district’s darkness without a plan, continuing to use the same tactics that got us here in the first place: seemingly putting his own interests ahead of the community and its children. 

(And that great hire, Heather Bixby? She’s not been to any of the budget meetings since May 21, and no one in administration has said what happened to her. It’s like Bixby has vanished, but not without a trace: after all, it’s her problematic accounting, her inability to track hiring, and her unwillingness to use proven software that helped carry Newberg-Dundee schools into its current mess.)

Although Phillips has (somewhat) owned his role in this colossal failure, he continues to operate as he had before the discovery of the budget shortfall, making it even more difficult to trust that he can lead us back to financial solvency. Specifically, Phillips lacks

Transparency: At recent budget meetings, Phillips has not clearly articulated his plan for leading the school through this difficult time. For example, he mentioned an idea about consolidating elementary schools, but he hasn’t explained his justification for doing so. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that Phillips is providing tours of Joan Austen Elementary to representatives from several local entities interested in using the building for childcare. Is this true? How will this help with the budget shortfall? How will this impact teachers, students, other stakeholders? A leader would explain his actions, talk with his board about his thinking, and be transparent about his decision-making. Phillips is not being transparent.

Communication: Similarly, Phillips is not communicating clearly with teachers, parents, or community members about why the district got into this mess, what specifically happened to the millions now missing, or what he will specifically do going forward. In fact, rather than communicating clearly, the communications position at the district has been slashed to .5 FTE. Statements put out by Phillips and his district office reflect a lack of attention to this crucial element of leadership: they are unclear, poorly written, and without the specificity needed at this moment. Phillips is not communicating clearly.

Empathy: People in our community are fearful of what the future holds for their children. Teachers are fearful about their jobs. Employees of the district are fearful about whether they will get paid this year, and whether they should be looking for a job next. The school board is facing a daunting task. At this moment, we need an empathetic leader, one who can face constituents with honesty about what has happened; an acknowledgement of how his actions have damaged the district; and the compassion to express that people are afraid. Phillips’ astounding lack of empathy was on clear display at the last budget meeting (May 30), when his snarky response to Directors Jeremy Hayden and Sol Allen served to diminish them and their concerns, attempting to make them look stupid (even though their questions reflected Phillip’s lack of communication and transparency). Phillips lacks the empathy needed at this moment.

Accountability: One of our main concerns over the last two years is that the previous school board, and Superintendent Phillips, were not being held accountable for any decisions they have made: There were no formal leadership evaluations. No audits of the budget. And a sweetheart contract that had no mechanism for holding Phillips accountable: indeed, the old board awarded him (and his deputy superintendent) contracts that included lucrative payouts if he was fired, making that even losing his job would mean that Phillips won. Although the May 2023 election was one way the community held directors accountable, Phillips has continued to make decisions about the budget without consulting the board, as if he alone can fix a district he has dismantled. Phillips operates without fear of accountability.

QUESTIONS WE ALL SHOULD BE ASKING: 

  • Do we really want Phillips to be creating a plan for the district?  
  • Do we really feel like he is capable of formulating a systematic plan by creating a lens for decision making, reaching out to stakeholders and then implementing the plan?  
  • Don’t we really need an experienced interim to come in and do a thorough analysis before any cuts like an elementary school are put on the table?

Phillips’ actions, his inaction, his hubris, his unwillingness to listen to constituents will continue to mire our district in a financial collapse he enabled, along with the “best people” he hired. (And maybe fired? We don’t know, as he won’t say.) The pressure on him should be mounting, especially given recent press coverage like this story on KGW. 

Help us continue to push Phillips toward resigning without a payout he is rumored to be seeking. You can sign a petition demanding he resign. You can show up to the board meeting tonight (June 3) that will start after the 5:00 pm executive session. You can insist that Phillips start working on behalf of the community and its children, rather than his own professional livelihood. 

Together, we can start rebuilding Newberg-Dundee schools with the kind of leadership our children deserve, and that we all need.

Help Save Our Schools: Several Actions To Take Now

After Tuesday night’s Newberg School District Budget Meeting, we know the financial state of our district is even more dire than we thought. And yet, at the meeting, the school leadership refused to answer questions that might clarify what was done to get the district into a financial mess; and also, what can be done to assure that the school district doesn’t make similar errors going forward.

Instead, as has often been the case, school leadership deflected, blamed others, and repeated “I don’t know” and “I don’t have an answer for that,” even though people in their position should know, and should have answers, given the leadership roles they currently hold.

Something needs to change before Newberg Schools plummet into a financial hole that might shape education in our community for the next generation, at least. Here are two specific ways you can help, right now, to assure a better future for our community’s children:

  1. Write the school board and let them know that we need change in our school’s leadership. Ask them to encourage the resignations of Superintendent Stephen Phillips, Deputy Superintendent Scott Lindenberger, and Director of Finance Heather Bixby. You can write the entire board at boardmembers@newberg.k12.or.us.
  2. Sign this petition, which reflects the concerns of your Newberg neighbors, and demands that Phillips, Lindenberger, and Bixby resign. We are hoping that a groundswell of support might make a difference in changing the leadership of our district.

If you need talking points, please consider this public statement, made Tuesday (5/21) by Newberg School Board Chair Nancy Woodward, one which reflects the deep concerns of this board, and the difficult road ahead for Newberg schools. We need someone in leadership who can help the schools navigate this road with care, transparency, and competence.

From Nancy Woodward, Chair of the Newberg School District:

The Newberg-Dundee School Board received news last night that the school district is over $3.7 million dollars in debt for this current school year. This stunning disclosure is as much a shock  to members of the School Board as it is to you.

Despite frequent inquiries of the superintendent on the status of the district budget, the school board was regularly assured that any potential budget shortfall would be managed through savings from staff retirement and resignations. Last week at the May 14th board meeting, the board was told there were new concerns about the current year and proposed 2024-25 budget.

Here is the current status:

The school district just paid $1.1 million dollars to the Oregon  Department of Education for overpayment of revenue. According to a recent independent budget review, the district is short over $10.7 million dollars to balance the 2024-25 school budget. The school board must legally adopt a budget for 2024-25 school year by the end of June.

Our next step is to fully understand the magnitude of this budget crisis and exactly what led the district to this point— and to share this information with you.

As a locally elected board, the Newberg-Dundee School Board has a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of this community. We have a duty to protect the school district’s assets, provide transparency, accountability and promote a high level of professionalism from the organization’s leadership. We take that responsibility seriously.

Newberg students deserve our best, even under the most difficult of times. The School Board  is committed to providing ongoing, transparent communication and working with the the community and skilled professionals to resolve this crisis. You are encouraged to direct your questions, comments and ideas to the entire board at  boardmembers@newberg.k12.or.us

The Real Costs of Toxic Positivity

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. 


What Happened In Jewell? Finally, Some Answers . . .

Over the course of our reporting about the Newberg School District, we’ve continued to have questions about Superintendent Steven Phillips, hired by the school board in 2022 to assume leadership of a district in crisis. At that time, another candidate for the superintendent role, someone with a distinguished history in Newberg who was recommended by a number of educators and parents, was overlooked in favor of Phillips: a person with serious baggage. Phillips had been fired from the Beaverton School District for racist social media posts, and was on leave from Jewell School District when he was hired in Newberg.

It wasn’t ever clear why Phillips was suspended from his Jewell position, but a recent court filing might provide some answers. As reported by The Oregonian, in a lawsuit filed on Monday in Clatsop County, a former Jewell student alleges that a teacher abused her sexually for several years, over 100 times, and supplied her with marijuana and other drugs. The suit alleges that despite ample evidence by other employees in the school building, the abuse was not curtailed, nor was the offending teacher forced out of his position.

Instead, the suit says, he was allowed to quietly resign and apply to other school districts, who were not aware of his predatory behavior. The teacher’s license was revoked in fall 2023, and on April 9, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

The Oregonian article provides some details alleging Phillips’ culpability as a leader in the district who did not protect the victim, nor by extension other students in the district. But the lawsuit itself, which you can read here, is even more damning.

Here are some allegations:

“Phillips…interviewed multiple students from Brandon’s classroom who corroborated concerns about Brandon’s boundary violations and inappropriate conduct towards students. Among the concerns was Brandon spending most of the instructional period behind closed doors in his private office with female students (one of whom was Plaintiff).” 

“As set out above…Defendants had extensive information [of] Brandon’s dangerousness towards female students. Despite Defendent’s knowledge of this information, neither the District…Executive Administrator/Superintendent Phillips, nor any other district staff reported this information to the proper authorities, undertook any investigation…nor made any attempt otherwise to end, mitigate, or prevent Brandon’s ongoing sexual abuse of Plaintiff.”

“On April 1, 2019, a Jewell School District volunteer walking by Brandon’s class saw Plaintiff smoking marijuana and reported it to the school administration. A small group of three female students (including Plaintiff) who regularly used marijuana with Brandon in his classroom were called into Superintendent Phillips’ office…Plaintiff disclosed to Superintendent Phillips that it was Brandon who had supplied her with the marijuana vape pen. Thereafter, Phillips effectively expelled Plaintiff, rescinding an inter-district transfer and forcing Plaintiff to return to her zoned school in the Vernonia School District. Plaintiff’s father also told Phillips that he believed Brandon supplied the marijuana to Plaintiff. District Defendants did not take any meaningful action in response to this information. Instead, District Defendants allowed Brandon to complete the 2018-2019 school year…the District Defendants facilitated Brandon obtaining another teaching job, this time with grade schoolers…”

“Throughout the period of Brandon’s boundary violations, harassment, and grooming of Plaintiff while Plaintiff attended Jewell School, much of which was observable, occurred within view of the Defendants, the Defendants (1) failed to question Brandon about the nature of his relationship with Plaintiff, (2) failed to investigate comments and reports that Brandon had an intimate relationship with Plaintiff, (3) failed to report reasonable suspicion of child abuse of Plaintiff to police or state authorities, and (4) failed to create and enforce an appropriate boundary between Brandon and students…in doing so, Defendants acted with deliberate indifference to the safety of students…and/or tacitly authorized Brandon’s misconduct to continue.”


In a district where teachers have unfairly and incorrectly been accused of being sexual predators, and of indoctrinating students, it’s extra troubling that our superintendent did so much to shield an actual predator, despite ample evidence that the teacher was causing significant harm to a student. Superintendent Phillips has a lot to answer for here, and we hope he will address these allegations directly rather than brush them away with more toxic positivity.

Almost One Year Later, The School Board Needs Our Support

One year ago this spring, Newberg neighbors worked together to change our community’s future. Having decided that an alt-right school board was dismantling a once-vibrant school district, people combined their energy, their resources, and their gifts to successfully elect five new board members. After months of collaborative labor, a slate of non-partisan candidates was sworn in last June, and over the last year, those folks have been working to restore our community’s faith in its schools, and to provide Newberg’s children the education they deserve. 

Truthfully, many of us were tired after the election. We’d done the work, expending emotional capital attending school board meetings and providing public comments in a space that sometimes seemed like a right-wing political convention. We’d knocked on doors, phone banked, talked to friends and family, and provided campaign funds. And when the new board was elected, we felt like we could exhale: those new school board members were competent, ethical, and collaborative. 

Now more than ever, though, those school board members need our support, as do the educators in Newberg who continue to face toxic work environments, thanks in part to district office leadership who was hired by the previous board; and are paid very well because of contracts codified by the previous board; and who has demanded loyalty from others in the district, often at significant emotional and fiscal cost to employees being bullied into silence. 

There are specific actions that people can take to support the current school board, the district’s teachers, and its families:

  • Attend the school board meeting on Tuesday night, and provide public comment. We are aware that people highly critical of the current board will be attending, and will be providing comments. Voicing another narrative, focused on the good work of our board and teachers, will give ballast to these negative comments.
  • The Parents’ Rights Policy is once again on the agenda for Tuesday. Note that the policy bears little resemblance to the discussions convened last spring, during which 60 community members argued for a parents’ rights policy that addressed the needs of all children. Parents’ rights policies in other states, like Florida’s Don’t Say Gay Bill, too often focus on the rights of heteronormative, white families, rather than recognizing the need for all parents to have a say in what rights they are granted.
  • The Chehalem Online Academy (COA) program is also on the meeting agenda for Tuesday, and we’ve received credible information that the essential program is also on the chopping block, despite its success in reaching children who, for whatever reason, cannot attend all-day school in person, including a number of homeschool families. According to some, the reasoning behind axing COA is fiscal, though the costs for online instruction are minimal, and the decade-old program has been fiscally sound in the past. (In fact, part of the new construction at Catalyst was intended for COA, which makes us wonder why the superintendent has decided to cut the program now, after money has already been spent on infrastructure, and when–by their own admission–more families in the district are choosing homeschooling.)And, more broadly, although budget reports from the district office have been glowing, there’s a sense that everything is not as it seems, especially since nearly every other school in the state is facing significant budget cuts. 
  • Lindsay Hayden, a 5th grade teacher at Joan Austin Elementary school, has requested a public hearing following a parent complaint, her suspension as a teacher, and then a contentious meeting with the superintendent and the human resources director. Lindsay has asked that her story be told, and that people attend the hearing (happening at the meeting) to support her. She feels her marriage to Jeremy Hayden, a current board member, has made her a target for retribution, from both district office staff and parents who were happy with her work–until her connection to Jeremy was made. Lindsay’s journey from being nominated for a “Special Educator of the Year in Oregon” award, to being suspended, to being offered a demotion, to having her role with the district terminated has all happened in less than three months, raising questions about what is really going on.  

  • The entire ordeal reveals a haphazard hiring and firing process in the district, where teachers are given verbal agreements and handshakes, with meetings that sometimes feel threatening, especially when a superintendent and human resources person use yelling and intimidation as a strategy for adjudicating complaints.
  • Similarly, the current school board needs access to other complaints that have too often been handled only by the superintendent and human resource persons. We know of at least four BOLI complaints made in the past six months, but none of those have been presented to the board, and we are not even sure the current board knows about complaints made about the superintendent and the human resources director intimidating employees, compelling some to take leave because the work environment has been so hostile. 

Why isn’t the school board allowed to address these complaints publicly? What is the superintendent and his right-hand man trying to hide? Their unwillingness to address the challenges our district is facing, or to paper over any problems with toxic positivity, suggests that the district isn’t being well run, which is surprising, given that our superintendent is one of the highest paid administrators in the state. 

Given the considerable resources he’s being allotted by our tax dollars, it seems like we should have one of the best school districts in the state as well. We don’t know where we stand, though, because there hasn’t been any audits, any evaluations, any sense of what this leadership is doing right.

Hopefully, with more parental support, those things can be brought to the light. It’s time for the public who supports this board to show up, starting tomorrow night (March 12).

Superintendent Contract – A Citizen’s Take

Newberg School Board, and Dr. Phillips,                                               1/16/24           

While not able to attend, I have listened to the recording of the Jan. 9th Board meeting, and particularly the extensive discussion of Dr. Phillips’ contract and the Feb. 15th deadline to trigger/not trigger automatic rollover of the contract for a fourth year. I appreciate the seriousness and thoughtfulness in which all of the board members entered this discussion, both long-term members and new members to the Board. 

I would like to offer my thoughts on the situation, as a resident of Newberg and a parent of NSD alums. 

In an ideal world, all parties (employer and employee) enter into contracts in which everyone is thrilled with all details, and those contracts play out in environments that never call into question any element of the contract, or the working relationship from which the contract arose. As we know, in very few working contexts are all, or even most of these ideals met.

There are a few factors at play before discussing the 3 year rolling nature of the contract, the Feb. 15th deadline to amend/abridge and what doing so would or would not signify about Dr. Phillips’ future in the District. Among them are:

·      This 3 year contract was entered into after a relatively brief time on the job on Dr. Phillips’ part, and without public evidence of a robust performance evaluation by the previous Board. 

·      The contract was entered into with no public Board discussion, no public input, and, potentially, no or limited vetting by District legal counsel. 

·      In the less than a year that the new Board has been in place, no robust performance review of Dr. Phillips has been done. 

·      Indications are that this contract, both in its base salary and built in perks, is significantly more generous than those contracts of both previous Newberg Superintendents, and current Superintendents in comparable (3up/3down, to use Director Bridges’ term) Districts. 

·      As noted by the legal counsel, the nature of the 3 year rolling contract as written makes it very easy to continue indefinitely, and very challenging to amend or terminate. 

In listening, and watching the recording of the 1/9 meeting there seems to have been quite a bit of discussion and consternation around the term “terminating the contract.” I feel this clouded the issue. If, at the Feb. 13th Board Meeting the Board votes to “Terminate the CONTRACT” it is doing JUST that, terminating the automatic renewal of THIS contract AS IS two years from now. 

It is NOT terminating, or SIGNALING the PENDING, or even LIKELY future termination of Dr. Phillips. 

I recognize that, emotionally, it is less favorable for Dr. Phillips to be working under a contract that he knows will not last indefinitely, and he’ll need to renegotiate over the next two years, but this is a situation that employees face in all sorts of jobs (from teachers having contracts renegotiated to professional athletes being asked to renegotiate contracts that their teams no longer feel are favorable). 

Dr. Phillips then has a CHOICE. HE can decide if he likes working in Newberg, feels that his performance is likely to lead to a newly negotiated contract that will enable him to remain in Newberg OR he could decide to seek comparable compensation and employment in a new District. By not agreeing to roll the contract, as is, over for a 4th year, the Board is NOT FORCING HIM OUT, or even gently nudging him out. He is an adult professional, able to make decisions that he feels are best for himself and his family. 

In the hiring process that resulted in Dr. Phillips’ hiring, at least one imminently qualified candidate was passed over. Were Dr. Phillips to choose to leave, NSD would have other qualified candidates to choose from. 

Were Dr. Phillips decide to stay, and performance evaluations, District enrollments and finances and community support for him suggest he should be retained two years from now, he is absolutely free to enter into a new contract and remain here as long as all parties are satisfied with the conditions of his employment. 

I do NOT feel the contract should be automatically rolled over on the 15th because failure to do so might hurt Dr. Phillips feelings. 

I believe it is a bad contract for the District. It is out of line with our history, with comparable contracts in neighboring communities, and is likely to complicate negotiations with the teacher’s union who are almost certainly not going to be offered anything proportionately similar (in salary or perks). I believe the only responsible thing for the Board to do is to terminate this contract (in 2 years, as is the earliest possible date) and return the Superintendent’s contract to one more proportionately appropriate. 

My sense of this says NOTHING about whether or not Dr. Phillips should be the long-term Superintendent of Newberg Schools. Only annual and substantive performance reviews, and the future enrollment/academic/financial performance of the District can speak to that. I trust Dr. Phillips’ ability as an adult professional to understand the difference between rejecting an unwise contract, and the rejection of him personally. I hope the Board will not conflate the two.

Dr. Steve Sherwood

Newberg Resident

Truth be Told, Fiscal Responsibility Matters

On July 11, the Newberg School District swore in five new members. At that first meeting, the chair of the school district’s budget committee, Kat McNeal, made a public comment. Kat sounded the alarm, saying right off the bat that she had, “abstained from passing the budget committee due to many concerns.” 

That got our attention. When the chair of the Finance Committee expresses multiple concerns about the current school district budget, we want to know why. Not only is the wise use of taxpayer money by our public schools a moral responsibility, it’s a practical concern to make sure our tax dollars are helping our students succeed. McNeal called for the new members of the board to bring integrity and transparency to district finances. 

Just two meetings later, at the September 12 board meeting, Director Renee Powell asked that McNeal step down as chair of the Budget Committee, claiming a “conflict of interest.” Is Director Powell trying to silence the whistleblower? This topic–the fate of McNeal–is now on the agenda for the October 10 board meeting.

McNeal is knowledgeable and experienced, having served on the budget committee for ten years. She has been the chair of the budget committee for the past five years. Her tenure on the committee has spanned several superintendents and boards, including the Dave Brown-led board that caused the district so much turmoil. She was approved to be chair twice by that board, and has served countless volunteer hours assuring that the district’s budget is transparent, so that community members have a clear sense where the district is spending its money. 

This year, McNeal stated she abstained from voting to approve the district’s budget because of concerns she had about the district and lack of transparency regarding fiscal issues, its use of money for attorney fees, and the absence of a strategic plan–a document that should guide monetary priorities for the organization. 

McNeal has suggested that the district undergo a forensic audit to assure that money is being spent appropriately, and to compel the district to be forthcoming about its financial liabilities. 

Instead of heeding McNeal’s concerns and agreeing to transparency, Director Powell  suggested that McNeal needs to resign. 

“So it’s come to my attention that the Budget Chair Committee is in a lawsuit right now against the District,” Powell said on September 12.  “And I think that’s a conflict of interest. And so I think that shouldn’t the Board advise that she steps down, because that’s a conflict of interest.”

It’s true: McNeal is part of a lawsuit. McNeal and the other plaintiffs, all NSD parents, are suing the district and four individual board members (Powell, Director Trevor DeHart, former chair Dave Brown and former vice chair Brian Shannon), attempting to prove that these four intentionally and willfully broke public meeting laws. If they win, no money goes to the plaintiffs. Instead, they are asking that the individuals compensate THE DISTRICT for illegally spent dollars. 

Far from being a conflict of interest, McNeal’s actions are on behalf of the district and for the good of the district. 

This civil lawsuit has been ongoing for several years and is set to go to trial next month, in November.  Powell knew about the suit (being named on it and all) when McNeal was approved by the board two times. 

McNeal hasn’t kept hidden her role as Budget Committee chair, even as the suit has made its slow crawl through the court system. Instead, she has worked countless hours to make sure that district budgets comply with the law, as well as holding government officials accountable for how tax dollars are spent. She does this work because she is passionate about public education, and about assuring that our community’s children can get the best education possible. 

Which is why she has asked hard questions about the current budget, and about serious discrepancies that exist in the budget she was asked to approve–and declined. At the July board meeting, she highlighted several potential problems with the budget:

  • The district didn’t have a strategic plan. They hadn’t had one for two years. A budget should be informed by a strategic plan, and that didn’t happen.
  • Actuals that had passed and were audited for the past few years were not matching with actuals that were shown in this year’s budget.
  • State funding to the district was suspended from January to May, and it’s unclear how the district made payroll without those funds. There had been talk about bond money being used during that time, but this is not reflected in the budget and she wanted to know if this was the case.
  • There are concerns about taxpayer money from the school district paying for individual board members’ attorney fees. The budget shows money being paid to the Thenell group, even though that law firm was not representing the district or one of the district’s attorneys of record. Billing to another law firm, which represents both the district and the individual board members, did not clearly show that district money was only covering district fees and kept separate from the fees of individual board members.
  • McNeal was concerned that even though the previous board already had one lawsuit about breaking public meeting laws, there were additional actions (like the creation of the parents’ rights policy in May) that also run the risk of more expensive lawsuits for again violating public meeting laws.
  • A policy outlining the superintendent’s evaluation–and its connection to contracts–was removed from the district policies, opening the doors for a fairly extravagant superintendent contract, which we talked about here.

Newberg Neighbors for a Better School Board has come out of its hiatus to express support for McNeal, and to question whether Director Powell’s desire to make McNeal resign is just one more way to quell dissent in our district. Time and again, we’ve seen people ask questions of district leadership, only to find themselves silenced. 

McNeal is asking very good questions about our district budget. If the leadership really wants the best school district possible for our community’s children–and if they have nothing to hide–they should be willing to provide clear, compelling, well-documented explanations.  But asking a talented budget committee chair to step down is not the answer our district needs.

A Comparison of Contracts

In the waning months of the previous Newberg School District’s Board of Directors’  tenure, the directors pushed through policy changes (a Parents’ Bill of Rights) and new contracts. Neither of these actions were transparent: all of it was done without stakeholder input, much less their knowledge. The policy changes have received a lot of attention, taking the focus off the district’s considerable financial issues, including the sweetheart deal the  superintendent and deputy superintendent received in their contracts. Training our focus solely on the policy change is a classic red herring.

red herring

noun

: something intended to distract attention from the real problem

To understand the basis of our deep concern about finances and the contracts, and to know why we are sounding the alarm, it is important to understand the history of the district’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” It is also important to understand both the unusualness of the current superintendent contract and the Superintendent’s history of financial dealings. In the coming weeks, we will be taking a close look at the history of the Parents’ Bill of Rights, the making of the current superintendent and deputy superintendent contracts, and some relevant history about Dr. Phillips.

For now, we are publishing a comparison of Dr. Phillips’ first contract with the new one passed in June without discussion by the a board who had weeks earlier been voted out of office. We believe this is important information for the public to have.

Please, take a look yourself and see what you think of Dr. Phillips’ contract.

Bringing a Contract Into the Light

“We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Next Tuesday Newberg Public Schools will turn the page on its history. Five recently-elected directors will be sworn in, joining Renee Powell and Trevor DeHart on a newly constituted school board. As we noted after the May 16 election, a different narrative can now be written about the Newberg School District, one that will hopefully keep Newberg schools out of the national news for all the wrong reasons, and will make safe spaces for children and families, especially those who haven’t had their needs met the last few years.

Still, the out-going board made sure to add one final chapter to their work, using a June meeting consent agenda to pass a sweetheart of a contract for Superintendent Steve Phillips. The contract was not made available until the board approved it, and there was no time for public comment about the substantial raise and increase in benefits Phillips will receive. Having it be public only after it was approved is hypocritical and very concerning.

It could be that Phillips has saved our district from ruin, and deserves a raise. It could be, as multiple people said at the June 13 meeting, that Phillips is a God-ordained addition to Newberg, like the prophet Esther, raised up “for such a time as this.” (Never mind the problem of using Christian language in a secular school board meeting, nor its misapplication of the prophet’s story in this instance.)

It could be, but thanks to a lack of accountability and transparency, we don’t know the entire story. The public doesn’t know how the board assessed Phillips’ work, nor do we know the metrics by which his work was judged. 

His evaluation was also done under cover of executive session, with Chair Dave Brown emerging from that short meeting to proclaim that Phillips was doing a tremendous job. 

We just needed to believe Brown about that, because we have no other basis for understanding how Phillips landed such a lucrative contract. (If only performance reviews for teachers and paraeducators could be so quick, so painless, and result in so much money and so many benefits.)

If we understand correctly, though, passing Phillips’ contract in the consent agenda was illegal. (Please, if we’re wrong, feel free to provide specific evidence showing that this maneuver was completely legal and above board.) In the least, this process feels immoral, another time when the board worked without transparency and accountability, and without consideration of the stakeholders: educators, parents, and most certainly, children in the district.  

We are also not clear if Phillips’ contract was poorly written, and the additions to his salary are a result of this lack of clarity. This is actually a better scenario than the alternative: that the board and Phillips knowingly created a contract with enough extras added to make him one of the highest paid superintendents in the state. 

The pay and the “fringe benefits” seem excessive in multiple ways. 

  • If we are doing the math correctly, the travel expenses line could add almost $80K to Phillips’ total package, an increase of eight times. According to the contract, “The District agrees to pay the Superintendent 3% of the base yearly salary per month.” This would amount to $6,450 per month for travel: more than most starting teachers will receive as salary for their efforts. 
  • Philips’ vacation days went from 21 to 30 days with a new payout for unused days. It looks like previously unused vacation rolled over, but were not eligible for payout. That could potentially add another month’s salary to his pay, as he can cash out on June 30 with whatever days he hasn’t used.
  • Phillips will receive a cell phone plan of $4300/year as part of his benefits. The most expensive cell phone plan we could find was $2,380/year. Most plans are between $780 – $1,800/year, so we question this exorbitant increase. 
  • Phillips and the old board seem to be adding language that will protect him financially, even if he’s fired. There’s a $30,000 bonus for three years of service, with the added caveat that, “Should the Board decide to terminate the Employment contract within the first three (3) years of the contract, the lump sum of $30,000 shall be awarded to the Superintendent on said separation date.” Imagine having that kind of rider in your contract, giving you a nice bonus even if you do a deplorable job and get fired. (We’re not saying that Phillips is doing a deplorable job. We have no idea what kind of job he’s doing, because the board wasn’t transparent about how he was evaluated.)
  • Philips’ overall pay will be $215,000, quite an increase from former contracts, and more than superintendents are making in comparable districts. Several years ago, the board’s personnel committee did a survey of surrounding districts, and discovered that Newberg was at the bottom of the pay scale for superintendents. But even the committee’s request to raise former Superintendent Joe Morelock’s pay to $175,000 (from $170,000) was met with resistance from Director Brian Shannon, who couldn’t see spending the extra $5k. It could be his fiscal conservatism is situational, since Shannon apparently had no qualms about increasing Phillips’ pay so dramatically.
  • A provision in the contract reduced the amount of time Phillips has to warn the board of its departure by two months. You might remember that Phillips was not willing to release teachers’ contracts last year, making it harder for them to begin employment in another district. Yet he seems unwilling to hold himself to the same standard.
  • All told, these extras will give Phillips a contract that amounts to almost $300,000, a nice payout for a superintendent who was released from two previous districts: one for posting anti-immigration sentiments online, and another for reasons that remain unclear.

The former school board and its supporters have argued for the last two years that Newberg lost its direction, that we need to put children first, rather than politics (whatever that means). It’s hard to see a “children first” agenda anywhere in Phillips’ three-year contract, given how much money Phillips’ contract will be siphoning from classrooms and from children. In an era when Newberg teachers are having to buy supplies for their own classrooms, out of their own pockets, it feels especially egregious that their leader is receiving such lucrative pay. 

The new board definitely has their work cut out for them. We are hoping with more transparency and more accountability, Newberg really has put its bleakest days behind it, and can emerge into the light of a new era. We remember something a former, less-paid superintendent said in this regard when he was fired without cause less than two years ago: “From the darkest dark comes the brightest light.” Though there’s work yet to be done, we are looking forward to the light.

Edited for 2024:

If you want your thoughts made public about Dr. Phillips’ contract, consider making a public comment at the next school board meeting, which is February 13. School board meetings usually start at 6:00 p.m. You can also submit a comment online at publiccomment@newberg.k12.or.us by February 12, no later than 4:00 p.m. Board members can be emailed individually or collectively. The email for the entire group is: boardmembers@newberg.k12.or.us.

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