Over the last few weeks, the Newberg Graphic has been printing letters to the editor that overwhelmingly support changes to Newberg’s school board. The letter writers include retired educators and administrators, parents and grandparents, and community leaders, all who recognize the harm being done to Newberg’s kids by the current board’s decisions. 

While we appreciate the work of the Newberg Graphic, we wanted these letters to reach the widest audience possible. So we reached out to many of the writers, asking if we could republish their words. Every writer said yes. 

First up is Terry McElligott, a long-time employee of Newberg Schools, who served in a number of capacities, from classroom teacher to principal to working in the district office, guiding curriculum adoption. 

Here’s what she had to say: 

Return honesty, integrity to the school board

To the editor:

In the voters pamphlet and at the public candidate forum, incumbent school board members stated that “Newberg School District has a full staff of teachers.” Really? Here is what the candidates failed to share with you:

– Fifteen teachers employed by Newberg School District have no record of having a license in the Teacher Standard and Practice Commission, the Oregon agency that tracks the license and qualifications of each teacher employed in the state.

– Seventeen licensed teachers are on emergency, restricted, conditional assignments or reciprocal licenses, meaning they are not highly qualified for their positions.

– Mountain View Middle School and Edwards Elementary are each short one counselor. Edwards borrowed counselors for most of the year and just recently hired its own.

– Science and humanities classes at Chehalem Valley Middle School have been taught by an array of rotating substitutes throughout the entire year.

– Seven educational assistant positions remain open and unfilled for the current school year affecting the education of students at Chehalem Valley, Joan Austin, Newberg High School, Crater, Edwards and Dundee.

– Two psychologists working with vulnerable students are telecommuting from out of state over Zoom and three speech language pathologists also work with students over Zoom.

As a principal who led both Joan Austin Elementary School and Mountain View Middle School, this is neither a “full staff of teachers” or moving us toward “having the best public school in the state of Oregon,” as stated by the incumbent candidates.

Questions parents should ask the district leadership and school administrators:

– What is the staffing situation at my child’s school and how does it directly affect my child’s education?

– What proactive hiring strategies has the superintendent outlined and put in place during this spring and summer to ensure licensed employees will be teaching in-building and in-person? This is critical for special education students working with psychologists and speech teachers.

– Are Individual Education Plans (IEPs) being followed and are students receiving all minutes and services outlined in the plan? This is a legal and binding agreement among parents, school administrators and district administrators. What is the recourse if this plan is not followed?

– What is the Professional Development Plan with workshop sessions at regular intervals throughout the school year for all licensed teachers and administrators to improve instructional strategies together to drive academic improvement?

It is time to have school board members who are invested in students and parents. When your ballot arrives in the mail, five candidates with a vested interest in public education will listen to all constituents and demand a strategic plan to serve all students. Vote for Deb Bridges, Jeremy Hayden, Nancy Woodward, James Wolfer and Sol Allen.

Honesty, transparency and leadership are on the ballot. Your vote can bring back integrity and academic focus to the Newberg School District.

Terry McElligott, Newberg

Today, we’re posting a teacher’s story in their own words, narrating their experience in the Newberg-Dundee School District and explaining why they had to leave. The teacher reflects the passion of educators who feel like they have no choice but to leave, despite their love for children and this community. Stories like this are being replicated throughout our community, resulting in the loss of almost 200 educators from Newberg-Dundee schools.

Here’s their story in its entirety:

When I was fresh out of teaching school, I received my first job at Newberg School District. I was SO excited to begin the calling I’d had my whole life. I couldn’t believe I was FINALLY going to be working with kids every day! As we all know, time washes away the rosy color on our glasses, and we begin to see clearly. The reality is, on good days, being a teacher is hard. On the bad days, it can cause tears, anger, stomach aches, heart aches, sleepless nights, and the ability to make you question your career choices. I have seen, heard, and experienced things that no one ever prepared me for in all of my education classes. But never, even in my wildest imaginations, did I think I would experience what we were/are experiencing in Newberg because of the decisions the ultra-conservative board made to pursue their own agenda. 

First came the banning of BLM and LGBTQ flags. It was confusing and felt like it came out of left field. Why? Because I didn’t know one teacher who displayed such a flag in their room. Why were they banning something that doesn’t seem to be an issue? Then came the firing of Dr. Morelock. We were exhausted from coming off a pandemic and trying desperately to bring normalcy back to our students and to ourselves. Now we have no leader and no real explanation of why the board fired him except “he’s doing a bad job.” It was a sucker-punch that left many reeling.

Things kept getting worse. Bad adult behaviors, infighting, scandals, spying, firings, mass resignations, student behaviors escalating to a level I had never seen before, a sub crisis, staff and student mental health plummeting, and so much more. Outsiders began calling us groomers and accused us of indoctrinating. The worst part was that the people claiming so had never been in my (or any other teacher’s) physical or Google classroom to corroborate their belief. I’m not sure many of them even had students in our schools. I actually quit saying “It can’t get any worse” because I knew the next time it did I would be further disappointed and disgusted. It was embarrassing to tell people where I worked.

But it did get worse. Really. Great. Staff. continued to leave. Baffling decisions kept coming from the board and the district office. My teaching partners – my friends –  gave their notices. Partners who were exceptional at teaching and caring for kids. Together, we regularly increased student state and district scores. My school was decimated with resignations. I understood why they were leaving. And yet…my plan was to stay. My tipping point? That will remain personal.

Leaving was an agonizing decision. I wanted to stay for the kids I’ve taught and loved all these years and for those who were still to come. I wanted to stay to fight for the students who couldn’t fight for themselves. I wanted to stay so that I could continue to do what I’ve always done, even though many in our community believed that my days consisted of teaching everything but what I actually did teach. I wanted to stay because I know that many POC and LQBTQIA+ don’t have the ability to leave when things get tough. If I’m being completely transparent, I felt guilty for knowing that and STILL leaving. Critics have said that those who resigned abandoned the kids we claim to love and support. They don’t get it, and I’ve made my peace with the fact that they are never going to. 

Unfortunately, my problems didn’t end when I gave my notice. NSD didn’t play nice with my resignation. Teachers in Oregon are required to give a 60 day notice, and districts can choose to hold them or not. I know and accept that – if it makes sense. NSD decided to hold me and many others, yet some they let go. That made no sense. At the time of my resignation, I had a position that did not have direct responsibility for students. Children would NOT be sitting in a room without supervision/learning if I wasn’t there. The day we had our district Welcome Back! assembly, we were told to be ALL IN and were given poker chips to remind us of our commitment. I cried. I wasn’t ALL IN. I didn’t want to be ALL IN. I wanted to go to my new district and start the year with my students. It’s my understanding that some districts tried to negotiate with the NSD district office for a trade of employees – we’re holding your employee, you’re holding our employee; let’s just trade and be done with it. NSD’s response? Nope. To this day, I don’t understand why you would want to keep people who don’t want to be there for SIXTY days. Was it retaliation? I don’t know, but it sure seemed like it.

My current district was nothing but professional and supportive. They repeatedly told me how excited they were to have me and that even though this was not an ideal circumstance, they would take care of everything until I could arrive. Even after I fulfilled my 60 days, problems from NSD continued. I won’t go into them here; suffice it to say it was bad. My new district jumped into action to help me resolve it. I’m saddened that my final experience with a district that I dedicated many years to was so negative. If you want to hang onto the staff who have remained in Newberg, vote for a new board. In spite of what the district would like you to believe, it has not been an easy year. No matter what “side” an employee falls on, the turmoil is taking its toll. It has to stop.

In the end, I do wish the best for Newberg and its schools. I pray for healing, and I pray that all the things that make Newberg such a great place will shine brightly again. If you are on the fence about how to vote, please think about my story. Think about the many stories that are not being told. Vote for Sol Allen, Deb Bridges, Jeremy Hayden, Nancy Woodward, and James Wolfer. Level heads and a balanced approach have to prevail.  

Do you work in the Newberg school district or did the Newberg school board compel you to leave this district? We would love to hear your story, and can publish it anonymously on our site. Your voices, and your words, matter to us, and to the transformation of our school board. Feel free to email us at betternsdschoolboard@gmail.com.Newberg deserves better. Your vote by May 16 matters.

Two weeks ago, thanks to a FOIA request, we learned that 197 educators have left Newberg schools in the last two years. A persistent narrative in our community is that this exodus follows national trends, and also that those who resigned, leaving Newberg for other districts, showed a lack of resilience and dedication to children. 

Attend any school board meeting (and we have), and you will no doubt hear claims that “The district is fully staffed!” and “The district is finally doing great!” and “We are achieving academic excellence!” And while board supporters clap and offer fealty to the board in glowing public comments, the reality on the ground is far less positive.  

But don’t take our word for it. We’ve already shared the story of a teacher, who reflected on Director Dave Brown’s leadership, and the toxic environment the board has created; we heard from a parent volunteer, who’s seen special education students suffer without appropriate services. 

Today, we are sharing the story of a first-year teacher who has decided to leave the district, her dreams about helping students in Title I schools tarnished by leadership that has not provided her—or her students—the resources needed to succeed. “We are working with a failing system with insufficient supports in place,” the teacher admits. “We’re not set up for success, not with specialists spread so thin and educators taking the brunt of this reality.”

Having recently graduated from college, this teacher came to Newberg hoping to make a difference with marginalized students. She feels affinity for her colleagues and the families with whom she works, and it bothers her when peer educators are unfairly maligned for not doing enough. As she talked with us about classroom activities she did recently to help prepare students for state testing, we could hear her passion for students and her creative efforts to help students achieve positive academic outcomes. 

While the current school board has taken aim at Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), insisting that teachers need to focus on “reading, writing, and math,” this teacher realizes that academic success can only be achieved when students are socially and emotionally regulated, and that it’s impossible to focus solely on academic basics if other basic needs are not also met. 

Students are struggling: she often has to clear her classroom because of dysregulated students who pose a (physical) risk to other students (and teachers). Without enough support staff, the work of keeping students safe too often falls to her. There is a cycle of students exploding, getting sent to the office, being sent back to class,  just to do it all over again. Attempts to get struggling students the services they need go unfulfilled, because there is a skeletal crew of counselors and specialists able to intervene. This is an unsustainable model that leaves staff members overworked and prone to burnout. 

It’s easy to decide that struggling students are “bad kids” or that they have “bad parents,” without recognizing the underlying causes of so much classroom disruption. And those underlying causes cannot be addressed if there aren’t the supports in place—both in our schools and in our communities—to provide assistance when and where it’s needed. “It’s disheartening to hear these are bad kids,” she said. “They aren’t provided the support they need, and it’s hard as their teacher to captain the ship when the entire system is sinking.” 

In the midst of so much chaos, she wonders about the current board’s focus on parents’ rights and their insistence that they are “protecting” kids from indoctrination. She admits that classrooms aren’t safe—but not in the way the board imagines. Without more resources to help struggling children and the educators who help them, classrooms aren’t safe places because of physical threats and the potential of trauma. 

“When they talk about parental input and student safety, I have to wonder whose parental input they are talking about,” she said. “Which students are you trying to keep safe? And what are you protecting them from?” She has observed that some parents in the Hispanic community also feel unsafe, “scared to say anything because of how they’ve been responded to.” 

At the April 11 meeting, Director Renee Powell insisted “we all want a positive, thriving, and a growing school district with children and educators who enjoy coming to school in order to learn and teach, and who feel respected.” 

The teacher agrees with this sentiment and desire, yet there remains a sore disconnect. “I’m a positive person,” she said. “But I cry on the way to school every day.”

Like her colleagues, though, she “still gets up and still goes to work, because I love the students. If I didn’t care I wouldn’t see this through to the end of the semester.”

School board directors have consistently suggested that some teachers—especially those choosing to leave the schools—don’t care. “We all care,” she concluded, “and hate hearing that we don’t.” 

If we can agree that, “we all want a positive, thriving, and a growing school district with children and educators who enjoy coming to school in order to learn and teach, and who feel respected,” we need sustainable change and action. 

We have the power to make Powell’s vision of a better district a reality. Newberg can once again be a place where educators are supported and can focus on students, and where students can get the support they need to flourish. This election really is about that—and not the political ideologies Powell and her compatriots fear.

Do you work in the Newberg school district or did the Newberg school board compel you to leave this district? We would love to hear your story, and can publish it anonymously on our site. Your voices, and your words, matter to us, and to the transformation of our school board. Feel free to email us at betternsdschoolboard@gmail.com.Newberg deserves better.Your vote on May 16 matters.

Last week, thanks to a FOIA request, we learned that 197 educators have left Newberg schools. Although the school board will claim that this exodus follows national trends, we now know for certain that Newberg is losing educators at an alarming rate, taking talent, institutional knowledge, and stability with them, and thus having an adverse impact on children in the district.

Meanwhile, the school board continues singing its favorite tune: Everything is awesome, and there’s nothing wrong here. You can hear the latest iteration of that song from the board meeting last Tuesday night, where the newest proposed changes–a trimester system for all!–will magically save every residual problem left over from the last board. 

You could also hear that everything is awesome in the offering put out by the school district’s communication department, where incumbent Shelley Kolb interviews Superintendent Steve Phillips in a video that seems to promote Kolb and Phillips more than what’s actually happening in any of the schools. Everything is awesome, especially when the superintendent is making what amounts to a campaign video for a school board that oversees his work and decides his salary. More about that some other time.

For now, we wanted to share the story of someone who works as a parent leader in Newberg, and who serves as a volunteer in two different schools within the district. “I see a lot right now that is not right” in the district, she says. “But also not being shared.”

She articulates two concerns that are directly impacting children:

Paper or Pads?

The Newberg School District is asking individual schools to cover the cost of menstrual supplies, rather than provide funding itself or take funding from the state. The Menstrual Dignity Act, signed into Oregon law in July 2021, requires that all K-12 schools provide free menstrual products in its bathrooms. According to this parent volunteer, the current school board, following right-wing outrage about the act, chose not to accept money from the government allocated for this law, and are telling schools to pay for period products from an account intended for paper, tissue, and other classroom supplies.

“In many cases it is the Resource Room Funds being used,” the volunteer said. “We are learning, as these funds are low at the end of the year, that our offices are having to choose pads over paper. Otherwise, our students will be going without.”

Now, some folks might say that girls can just do what girls have done for decades, bringing their own products from home. Indeed, that seems to be what the board is suggesting. The Menstrual Dignity Act was built on the understanding that one in five girls miss school each month because they lack appropriate period products, and that sometimes, those living in poverty have to choose between expensive period products or food for a family.  Because school resource rooms understand the importance of menstrual equity, they have made sure to cover the funding gap, but the school board policy to not take Menstrual Dignity Act funding means that everyone loses, including children and educators, who won’t have full access to the supplies they need to learn. 

Unfilled Positions

The board and superintendent have claimed that most positions in the district are filled; at the April 11 board meeting, Human Resources Direct Scott Lindenberger said that a job fair had netted a whole host of candidates eager to teach in Newberg schools (though one observer at the same job fair noted that lines by the Newberg table were far shorter than for most other schools). Lindenberger also pointed out that there were a number of special education teachers applying to Newberg jobs . . . 

. . . which is huge, if true, because many positions in Newberg are not filled, especially in special education. A parent tells us that “my daughter is still receiving speech online. Psychologists are still online. We have counseling and sped (Special Education) staff that have never been in these positions and I question their qualifications. 

“WE HAVE NOT FILLED ALL OUR POSITIONS,” the parent added (emphasis hers). “Our buildings are still struggling to date. We are just running on less and under-qualified staff.” 

At a later time, our site plans to address the poor treatment special education students are receiving in the district. Children with a right to educational access are not receiving the accommodations they deserve, because the Newberg schools cannot attract special education teachers, nor have they retained the highly-trained educators who once worked in the district.

This school board insists on parents’ rights. Director Brian Shannon read his entire proposed parents’ rights statement into the record on April 11, and the board has decided to continue convening a parents’ rights committee. And yet, parents with students who need disability accommodations are not able to get the assistance they are assured by law, their rights ignored by a board who wants to demand again and again that everything is awesome. 

The election for a new school board is in five weeks. We have a chance to right this sinking ship, to give students the support they need, and to return hope to parents, educators, and volunteers who badly want their children to thrive.  

Do you work in the Newberg school district or did the Newberg school board compel you to leave this district? We would love to hear your story, and can publish it anonymously on our site. Your voices, and your words, matter to us, and to the transformation of our school board. Feel free to email us at betternsdschoolboard@gmail.com.Newberg deserves better.Your vote on May 16 matters.

The candidates’ forum on Saturday might have been Newberg’s hottest weekend ticket, as a standing-room only crowd listened to all ten candidates for the Newberg School Board share their vision for the district. Kudos go to the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Newberg City Club, and the George Fox University Civility Project for hosting the event. Although some folks are now asserting that the forum was partisan and unfair, it’s important to note that every candidate had the same time to talk, and every candidate had the same questions, prepared by a nonpolitical committee made up of Newberg citizens.

The moderator established clear ground rules that kept the forum from becoming a free-for-all circus. This included the prohibition of clapping and other verbal displays of approbation or disapproval, making the event far more civil than even recent school board meetings. Though one attendee took to Facebook to call the event “left-wing virtue signaling,” the candidates’ forum gave citizens an opportunity to make informed voting decisions, important if we want democracy to survive.

The incumbents, plus two other candidates running on the parent’s choice docket, had clear talking points, and all five offered some version of the following:

The new superintendent is super! 

Superintendent Steve Phillips received high praise for turning around what the incumbents asserted was a district in disarray.  According to one incumbent, Phillips was able to “hand-pick his district office,” which is rarely the case, and because of him and his staff, the schools are finally, finally on the right course.

Never mind that at least 197 educators left the district because of the hostile work environment created by this board, nor that Phillips got to handpick his staff because almost all district office employees left for other schools. Judging by the candidates’ forum, Phillips was literally God’s gift to Newberg.

By almost every metric, this assertion is untrue.

Parents should be involved!

We’ve covered the parents’ rights movement elsewhere, and it’s clear that Chair Dave Brown and his board believe that parents have inalienable rights, above anyone else, including teachers and children. At the candidates’ forum, Brown was most insistent that parents can dictate every part of their kids’ education, and the board should be writing new policies to codify the parents’ power.  

Never mind that the Newberg school district already has at least two dozen pages of policy regarding parental involvement, something Zone 4 Candidate Nancy Woodward pointed out in her comments. Never mind that the Newberg School Board has made two significant decisions in the last month without involving many (or any?) parents, moving secondary school schedules to trimesters, and changing start times to earlier for all ages. 

By almost every metric, the assertion that the board currently supports all parents’ rights is untrue.

Politics Don’t Belong in The Classroom!

Once again, Chair Brown insisted that politics don’t belong in schools, and that the policy in 2021, banning Pride and Black Lives Matter flags in the classroom, was about wanting to get back to educational basics. It had nothing to do with politics, really, and wasn’t even about Pride or BLM symbols at all.

Never mind that Chair Brown can be seen on video from the July 13, 2021, board meeting saying that the ban was specifically about Pride flags, and about Black Lives Matter flags. That particular meeting began a cascading series of failures for the board: Firing a superintendent who told them their ban was illegal, and he would not support it. Digging in, even though the board knew the ban was illegal. Facing lawsuits because of its illegality, costing the district funds that could have supported student learning.

By almost every metric, Chair Brown’s claim of being a-political in his decision making is untrue. 

This Election is About Integrity, Transparency, and Competence

At the forum, the five other candidates (Woodward, Jeremy Hayden, Deb Bridges, James Wolfer, and Sol Allen) offered steady and studied responses that centered children first and then educators, while empathizing with parents’ concerns. 

The forum was also a reminder that three of the five candidates have children who attend Newberg public schools (or will), a distinct contrast to incumbents who have little stake in the district, because their children are homeschooled or attend private schools. In the words of incumbent Raquel Peregrino de Brito, who has a child attending a Christian private school, her stake in public schools is simply because her kid will have to interact with children who attend public schools.

We imagine that most people who attended the forum already had their minds made up about who to vote for on May 16. And still, the event clearly showed what’s at stake in this election. 

Changing the trajectory of this board will require extraordinary effort in getting all our neighbors to vote, because Newberg’s children deserve a better school board, one focused on integrity and transparency, rather than misleading and misdirection. 

At the Newberg School Board meeting last night (April 11), Director Renee Powell used her public comment time to excoriate the Newberg Educational Association, the local teachers’ union that has endorsed five candidates for the school board, none of whom is currently on the board. Director Powell railed against the NEA, noting that she had talked with many teachers who don’t support the NEA’s endorsements and their leftist agenda. 

The screed included all the buzzwords currently prized by politicians to stir up fear of some progressive boogeyman: about control, and parents’ rights, and teachers with malformed agendas. Neither Powell, nor her fellow directors, have said much of substance about how they will support all educators, especially as the district makes dramatic changes in start times and in moving to a trimester system. 

As has been increasingly common, the boards’ comment did little to show what kind of substantive support they want to offer the teachers or the students they serve. Instead, the board and superintendent have used their platforms for airing grievances, a Festivus tradition carried into every board meeting the last two years.

Which makes it difficult to know what significant policies the incumbents–or new “the parent’s choice” candidates–hope to institute in Newberg schools, beyond the vague platitudes of the voters’ pamphlet. (We’ve already covered the factually-challenged candidates’ statements in the voters’ pamphlet.)

Turns out, the candidates’ websites don’t do much good, either. For the parent’s choice candidates, the same vague information from the voters’ pamphlet has been cut and pasted into their websites, with little more substance than the same vague promises of academic excellence, fiscal responsibility, and parental involvement. We don’t know the candidates’ plans for achieving these goals, nor the policy changes they might institute. On incumbent Raquel Peregrino de Brito’s site, there’s little more than pablum for the right, even though Peregrino de Brito has been a board director for over a year, and should have a record of decision-making that she’d want to run on. 

This weekend’s candidate forum might be the best–and maybe the only–place to hear what the incumbents’ specific plans are for serving the district, as well as the plans of the two other parent’s choice candidates, running for the first time. It will be interesting to see what all of the candidates have to say, what policies they are imagining, and how they might distinguish themselves from the other people in the field.  

This non-partisan event, hosted by the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, April 15, starts at 1 p.m. in Hoover 105 at George Fox University. Being an informed voter is an important part of sustaining a fragile democracy. This event is a good test of whether any of the candidates can move beyond buzzwords and fear-mongering to a substantive and civil discussion on policy. For the good of our community, and for our children, this event should be worth your time.