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.

May 20, 2024

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.

May 1, 2024

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. 9^th Board meeting, and particularly the extensive discussion of Dr. Phillips’ contract and the Feb. 15^th 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. 15^th 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. 13^th 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 4^th 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 15^th 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

January 20, 2024

Bringing a Contract Into the Light

“We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If we are doing the math correctly, the travel expenses line could add almost $80K to Phillips’ total package, an increase of eight times. According to the contract, “The District agrees to pay the Superintendent 3% of the base yearly salary per month.” This would amount to $6,450 per month for travel: more than most starting teachers will receive as salary for their efforts.

Philips’ vacation days went from 21 to 30 days with a new payout for unused days. It looks like previously unused vacation rolled over, but were not eligible for payout. That could potentially add another month’s salary to his pay, as he can cash out on June 30 with whatever days he hasn’t used.

Phillips will receive a cell phone plan of $4300/year as part of his benefits. The most expensive cell phone plan we could find was $2,380/year. Most plans are between $780 – $1,800/year, so we question this exorbitant increase.

Phillips and the old board seem to be adding language that will protect him financially, even if he’s fired. There’s a $30,000 bonus for three years of service, with the added caveat that, “Should the Board decide to terminate the Employment contract within the first three (3) years of the contract, the lump sum of $30,000 shall be awarded to the Superintendent on said separation date.” Imagine having that kind of rider in your contract, giving you a nice bonus even if you do a deplorable job and get fired. (We’re not saying that Phillips is doing a deplorable job. We have no idea what kind of job he’s doing, because the board wasn’t transparent about how he was evaluated.)

Philips’ overall pay will be $215,000, quite an increase from former contracts, and more than superintendents are making in comparable districts. Several years ago, the board’s personnel committee did a survey of surrounding districts, and discovered that Newberg was at the bottom of the pay scale for superintendents. But even the committee’s request to raise former Superintendent Joe Morelock’s pay to $175,000 (from $170,000) was met with resistance from Director Brian Shannon, who couldn’t see spending the extra $5k. It could be his fiscal conservatism is situational, since Shannon apparently had no qualms about increasing Phillips’ pay so dramatically.

A provision in the contract reduced the amount of time Phillips has to warn the board of its departure by two months. You might remember that Phillips was not willing to release teachers’ contracts last year, making it harder for them to begin employment in another district. Yet he seems unwilling to hold himself to the same standard.

All told, these extras will give Phillips a contract that amounts to almost $300,000, a nice payout for a superintendent who was released from two previous districts: one for posting anti-immigration sentiments online, and another for reasons that remain unclear.

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

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

Edited for 2024:

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

July 8, 2023