GUIDING THE DISTRICT: Where Is The Strategic Plan?

The school year is over halfway completed and, in a few months, school will be out for the summer. Kids and their teachers will get a much-needed break, schools will be closed for cleaning and updating, and–at this rate–the Newberg school board will still not have a strategic plan in place to guide its decisions for the 2022-23 school year..

That’s right, Newberg schools have no publicly stated goals for the 2022-23 year. The superintendent has no publicly stated goals. The district has yet to agree on any publicly stated goals. The 2023-24 budget is about to be set without any goals or community feedback, nor without a strategic plan to guide decision-making.

This is not how a functioning board should act.

The Oregon Department of Education provides tools for districts to implement a Continuous Improvement Process. According to their website, school districts need to strategically plan to “improve outcomes for students.”  They suggest that such a plan will help 

  • Determine what is working and what needs to change;
  • Establish a process to engage stakeholders to effect change;
  • Leverage effective practices to implement a plan;
  • Use data to monitor and make timely adjustments to improve outcomes.

This improvement process was used by boards in the years immediately before the 2021 election. With Dr. Joe Morelock at the helm, according to easily-accessible minutes, the Newberg Board of Directors “invited input from staff, students, parents, and community members to develop a new strategic plan. A strategic plan helps to guide the direction and focus the priorities of the district. The Board approved the new strategic plan on January 14, 2019.”

You can see how involved the strategic planning sessions were by looking at the district’s own webpage. Because the district wanted to hear from as many people as possible, there was childcare, interpreters (including Spanish and American Sign Language translators), and accessible documents for those with disabilities.

Four listening sessions were opened to the public, during which people shared their vision for the district; sorted and refined those goals, strategies, and ideas; created action steps; and helped to build the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan.

The plan, created with genuine input from a wide cross-section of the community, helped inform the school board’s decision-making, budgeting, and policies for subsequent years, providing a purpose and direction that was transparent, and which considered all stakeholders in the public school district: students, parents, teachers, community members, and taxpayers. 

Not only has the current school board failed to create a strategic plan to guide their activities, they have not been transparent in the plans they have made, and they have not shown interest in hearing from a wide range of stakeholders. 

Dr. Steven Phillips announced at the February 14, 2023, board meeting that he is organizing empathy interviews, but it’s not clear who he is interviewing, nor how this will help develop a strategic plan for the school district’s future. In an upcoming post, we will talk about why empathy interviews, while a positive gesture of goodwill, are  insufficient for guiding a district this large, and this diverse. 

Our concern is not about the lack of progressives on the board.

It’s the lack of transparency. 

It’s the lack of accountability. 

It’s the lack of a strategic plan.

Safety Sunday

Today’s post is about a difficult subject: the physical safety of our public school students. It is written by James Wolfer, who is running against current board chair Dave Brown in school zone 6.

A little bit about James: He is a father, School Resource Officer, and Coast Guard Reservist. He is a Newberg native, graduating from both NHS and George Fox University.

To follow James:

Website | Email: teamjames@jameswolfer.com

2,067 miles separate Newberg and Uvalde, TX. Last year’s school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde was incredibly upsetting to me not only as a parent, but also as a school resource officer. There were multiple abject failures leading to the tragic deaths of 19 students and 2 educators. The state of Texas passed school safety legislation in 2018 that collectively we saw was ineffective. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District last updated their policies about threatening conduct and weapons in October 2021. The policy for threats to a school in Newberg hasn’t been updated by our school board since 2000. Since 2000, the Washington Post reports there have been 366 school shootings and 338,000 students impacted by gun violence at school.

Extremely dangerous drugs are flooding our communities and getting into our schools, increasing the risk of overdose deaths for students and staff. We need robust education on addiction, a policy basis for how to treat youth addiction in our schools, and naloxone (Narcan) in every school building.

Student mental health issues have become epidemic, with suicides and suicidal ideation touching every school district – Newberg in particular in recent years. Our schools have to invest in improvements to the mental health supports in Newberg schools to provide top-of-the-line interventions. Our schools must become expert on cultural competencies, provide trauma-informed care, and recognize additional supports that kids from historically-marginalized groups may need.

Safety is a complex issue. When we’re responsive to what our kids are going through, we can build policy to prevent the worst-case scenarios and create conditions where Newberg students not only survive, but thrive to become treasured adults in our community.

This is About Competence and Integrity, Not Politics

School boards should be non-partisan, including the one in Newberg.

Prominent voices in our community have made divisions regarding public education into a left versus right, progressive versus conservative fight. Those opposed to the school board’s actions are regularly called sore losers who don’t have children’s best interests in mind; those critical of the Newberg School Board have been accused of being leftist shills, wanting to indoctrinate children.

This is a misrepresentation of concerns from those who oppose the current school board and its policies. 

In 2021, a Save Our Schools slate altered the school board’s make-up. School board elections were historically non-partisan and, in fact, the board pre-2021 had several conservative-leaning members among its numbers, people who voted in the interest of students and educators, and acted with integrity and transparency in their decision making. 

Our concern is not about the lack of progressives on the board.

It’s the lack of transparency. 

It’s the lack of accountability. 

It’s the lack of a willingness to listen to educators’ needs, and to parents who aren’t sufficiently loyal to the school board and its decision-making.

In this space, we plan to highlight the difference between a functioning school board and one that has ceased to function effectively. We want to note these differences not to score political points, but to show that our concerns are about Newberg’s children and their educational future.  

This week on What Should Happen with a Functioning Board: Board Committees

Here are the committees that should be meeting regularly when a school board is functioning normally:

  • Personnel Committee: should be working on the superintendent evaluation.
  • Facilities Committee: should be working on a long range plan to figure out the next bond/levy needs, deferred repairs, etc.
  • Policy Committee: should be regularly reviewing law changes which require updates to policies. This board stopped a complete review/rewrite of Board policies in June of 2021 before it was complete. The most important (and largest) section of policies regarding students has not been reviewed for compliance with the law or had any updates for any law changes since 2021.

If you scour the Newberg School Board website, or look for any information about board committees, you will find information about these committees meeting:

[Nothing]

Like we said, our concern is about competence, not politics.

How can you help?

Although school board elections are only a few months away, your actions right now can help to assure that the Newberg School District gets back on track. The issues in our district—and with our school board—might seem overwhelming. Working together and taking these simple steps will help assure a brighter future for our community.

Follow candidates on social media and advocate for their platforms. Their social media also has links to candidate websites with more information on their platforms.

 Finding ways to advocate for these candidates will give them and their student-first platforms added visibility, assuring that the current school board will not remain in power.

Contribute to their campaigns. Political campaigns, even for local, non-partisan elections, cost money. Some school board members were elected through a windfall of election money from political groups that have little interest in Newberg or its programs. Every small contribution to a candidate can provide a counterbalance to this outside money.

Counter disinformation when you see it (with a caveat). We’ve all seen the disinformation on social media: praise for the current school board, deflections away from their unethical acts, the defamation and name-calling of those of us who oppose the current school board. Countering the disinformation with factual evidence is important, though keep your own mental and emotional health (and physical safety!) in the forefront. The biggest name-calling bullies in Newberg will not be swayed from their narrow-minded rhetoric.

Personally attend school board meetings, as a way to hold them accountable. If you’ve attended any school board meetings recently, you know that the atmosphere is charged. The school board has rallied its supporters, many without children in the district, to cheer on their work. Attending school board meetings offers a counterbalance, letting the current board know that they can be held accountable for their decisions.

Spread the word through canvassing and on social media: the current school board has failed its students. The school board has cratered a once-vibrant district. Over 100 talented educators have left for other districts where their work is supported. The board’s decisions cost the Newberg taxpayers close to a half-million dollars (and counting!) in legal fees. Graduation rates are lower, and popular programs, like music and art, are being cut. Although the school board continues to blame the previous board, the pandemic, the state of education, what they are doing is not normal. We need to get the word out about the ways this school board has specifically failed us.

 Newberg deserves better.

Mission Statement

Newberg Neighbors for a Better School Board is deeply committed to our public school system. We want every student in the Newberg School District to receive a high-quality education, and know that the current school board is unable to deliver the education families in Newberg deserve.

Newberg Neighbors for a Better School Board is committed to assuring that the Newberg School Board is professional, fiscally responsible, accountable to the public, and accessible to all families in the district. Right now, the Newberg School Board has failed to follow professional standards. Its decisions have cost the district extraordinary amounts of money that might have served our students well. It has not been accountable to the public, and its decisions have not been communicated clearly-with clear rationale-to families in our district.

Newberg Neighbors for a Better School Board is committed to representing and welcoming a diverse student body and staff. Until school board elections in May, we will communicate clearly about how the school board’s actions have been detrimental to our community, knowing change needs to be made so that everyone- families, educators, the Newberg/Dundee community-can regain trust in our schools.

Join our Facebook page and follow our blog as we address concerns about the current Newberg School Board. Together, we have the power to create a community where:

  • People matter more than politics.
  • Transparency and accountability matter.
  • Neighbors learn to trust each other again.

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