Our Schools and our Community Need More Diversity on the Newberg City Council

The city of Newberg is fortunate to have three amazing, highly qualified candidates running for city council: Dr. Jeri Turgesen, Tyson Butler, and the only incumbent, Elise Yarnell. 

The city of Newberg is fortunate to have three amazing, highly qualified candidates running for city council: Dr. Jeri Turgesen, Tyson Butler, and the only incumbent, Elise Yarnell. 

Yarnell has served six years as a councilor from District 1. She is an amazing communicator and a proven collaborator with extensive experience getting things done! Besides holding a lot of institutional knowledge as our longest-serving city councilor, she is currently the only council member who is not a member of the ideologically rigid and uncompromising Newberg Dundee Strong. 

The monopoly Newberg Dundee Strong had on the school board has caused the Newberg Dundee School district to suffer greatly. The last thing we need is our most senior member of the council replaced with yet another member of Newberg Dundee Strong. We are concerned the city councilors will follow the example of the former Newberg Dundee school board members and not engage with or listen to constituents outside of their group. 

Why is Newberg Dundee Strong running a candidate for this position in the first place? Britta Mansfield announced her candidacy with a picture of her and Lindsay Berschauer at a local festival. On her website, Britta says, “I believe the community should still be involved in regularly choosing who they want to represent them and lead.” 

Sounds good, but there is absolutely no indication of how Mansfield would represent or lead better, let alone different, from Yarnell. In fact, Britta’s entire campaign, from the language used right down to the branding, seems to be copied from Elise. This raises a good deal of concern about why she is running under the guise of “let(ting) the citizens choose who represents them.”  

If Mansfied wins Yarnell’s seat with no other changes to the council, then EVERY council position will be represented by members of Newberg Dundee Strong. This concern about a Newberg Dundee Strong monopoly was shared with Mansfield on her Facebook page, along with a question about if she would represent all her constituents. Instead of attempting to quell the concerns about representation, Britta just ignored the question altogether. 

Thankfully, in addition to Elise, there are two other highly qualified citizens running for city councilor positions: Dr. Jeri Turgesen and Tyson Butler.

Turgesen was raised in rural Yamhill and brings her rural sensibilities and years of experience as a psychologist in Newberg to the table. She oversees all behavioral health for the Newberg Dundee School District. She is passionate about Newberg being a safe and nurturing community, especially for our children. 

This passion about youth mental health led her and Elise to create and implement a system to identify and help students experiencing suicidal ideation. Their combined efforts stopped the rash of youth suicides that rocked our community several years ago and it is crucial that this work continue. 

Like Yarnell, Turgesen is a clear and effective communicator. They both recently gave testimony to the Board of Commissioners about youth mental health, successfully getting funding released that had been held. Berschauer had held the funding because of her concerns about parents’ rights. Jeri explained the collaborative approach the health center uses and showed its effectiveness with data. There is 100% parental/guardian participation for youth in crisis. Her kindness, coupled with an ability to address serious issues, is much appreciated. 

Butler is a working professional who chose Newberg to raise his children, largely because it is a tight-knit community. He holds a master’s degree in public administration and has 10 years of experience in community development and conflict resolution. There are skills that will be put to good use here in Newberg! Jeri and Tyson will bring much needed diversity, skill and experience to our community. They will foster a strong, collaborative city. 

Please vote for Elise Yarnell, Dr. Jeri Turgesen, and Tyson Butler for Newberg City Council!

Signs Of Uncivility

It’s political sign season in my home community, as it is everywhere. In the county where I live, political signs proliferate almost every spring and fall, mostly for candidates in local races, less often for those at the national level, perhaps because Oregon is not a swing state, and because national races are pretty much decided before our polls close.

There are several notable exceptions in my hometown, though, of signs supporting a national candidate and which show that we are an uncivil people, and also uncivilized. The first, on a flagpole blocks from my home, has been proudly proclaiming “F*** Joe Biden!” for several years now. Except, of course, the asterisks are letters. Even the “Let’s Go Brandon!” bumper sticker on a car parked near that house shows a bit more taste, by the smallest of margins.

Read the rest of the post here . . .

Where Things Stand

In less than a month, teachers and students will be returning to the classroom, facing a new school year with fewer resources, larger class sizes, and a district leader who will continue to draw his exorbitant salary because he refuses to do the honorable act of resigning.

At the July 29 meeting, the Newberg School District moved to terminate Dr. Stephen Phillips, giving him a one-year notice that his services (such as they are) will no longer be needed in the district. A clause in his contract demands that Phillips be notified one year in advance of any termination, and that he continue to be paid during that stretch.

Phillips has been on Family/Medical Leave since June, just as news broke about the $11 million budget shortfall. Although he will return to the district on Sept. 4, he will no longer serve as superintendent; he will be reassigned to another position. Given the hash he’s made of our schools, it seems like the honorable thing to do would be for Phillips to resign, freeing up resources that could be used in the classroom, and for children.

This unwillingness to resign is a boondoggle for Phillips, but not for the schools he was presumably hired to “save” nor for the children he was presumably hired to “protect.” Saving and protecting children were the previous school board’s rationale for choosing Phillips as the district’s leader, after all, and yet Phillips managed to squander the district’s resources, and saddle next year’s budget with a $11 million deficit after a year of bragging that our schools were thriving financially.

But hey, at least he’ll continue to get paid for another year!

In the meantime, a cadre of retired school employees have done the honorable thing, serving the district for free this summer to right a sinking ship. Former Superintendent Paula Radich, operating under a contract that promises no compensation, has worked to untangle a budget gone wrong, making painful cuts to personnel, and trying to save our schools, protecting students from even more chaos so they can learn. She’s been joined by several others, including Claudia Stewart, who is providing much-needed communications in the district; and Lesley Carsley, who is studying why so many families left the district, and what we can do to bring them back.

As noted, they are doing this labor for free, a marked contrast from the superintendent, who isn’t laboring much at all, but remains the best-paid employee in the district. Still, we’ve heard rumors that Phillips and his deputy superintendent are being encouraged to sue the district for wrongful termination, because nothing says saving our schools more than making the district go through several more costly lawsuits.

We imagine that at the next school board meeting on August 13, supporters of Phillips et al. will be present to excoriate the board for firing Phillips. The same supporters might praise Phillips for the work he’s done, making it seem like his firing was unjust. We worry that these supporters might sow more chaos by suggesting that Radich’s work is somehow scornful or even illegal (we’ve seen innuendos about this in Newberg’s online spaces).

At this time, as students and teachers prepare to re-enter the schools, it’s more important than ever to offer your support, providing a counternarrative to those who think Phillips has been treated unjustly, and who see the board and Radich as villains.

To that end, here are several action steps you can take this week:

  • Attend the school board meeting on August 13 and offer public comment, supporting the current board and Raditch’s efforts, and reminding the community of what Phillips et al. has done to undermine our schools.
  • Send thank you notes to the district office, especially Dr. Radich, letting them know that you appreciate the work they’ve done to really save our schools.
  • Send emails to board members, expressing your appreciation for the very difficult decisions they’ve made this summer to right our school district. You can find their email addresses here.

Finally, we want to encourage you all to reach out to teachers and employees in the district. They are in a very difficult season, and need all our support. 

We are turning over a new page in Newberg Schools this fall, and it’s time to start writing a new story, where children and teachers take center stage, and those who have damaged our district so gravely no longer have a role.

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

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