“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.