Lebanon School Board Meeting After-Action Report (Except for the Stuff on Sand Ridge)

Interesting meeting.

They usually are.

Unlike the last time, I'm going to attempt to summarize this one a bit more concisely, mostly because it wasn't as long and I didn't stay for the whole thing. Frankly, it was also less eventful from my perspective.

Part One: Public Comment

There were only five comments that I saw (I might have missed the first one). Four of them were in favor of appointing Dick Behn as interim Social Systems Principal at LHS.

The last one was Mel Harrington telling the board "not to have agendas."

That's rich.

Harrington also got an ovation (albeit not a standing one) for suggesting that board members should resign if "they don't have an agenda... of working for kids."

I am always curious when a comment like that gets applause, since every board member has, at one point or another, claimed to have the best interests of kids in mind (and for all I know, they may honestly think they do). Therefore, Harrington's comment was hot air and little else.

The arguments made in favor of Behn, on the other hand, were pretty strong, including his quickly-developed rapport with students, parents, and teachers. Jennifer Walter made the point that Behn was not allied with anyone, which is as close as I've seen to someone making an explicit reference to the presence of factions among the LHS staff.

Connie Schmidt also made the point that hiring an existing teacher just created another space to fill. I hadn't though about that; it's a fair point.

I have to wonder if the ongoing conflicts the board is dealing with have had a positive, if unintended, effect: More people feel OK speaking during the public comment time. I've not been a regular attendee to board meetings, so I don't know the long-term picture, but it would be interesting if they had.

Democracy - even with a little 'd' - is messy. C'est la vie.

Part Two: Consent Agenda

Josh Wineteer moved to have Behn's hiring shifted from the HR section of the agenda to the consent section (where it was originally before Alexander threw a temper tantrum last time). It was seconded and passed without comment.

Josh then moved to approve the consent agenda minus the evening's agenda. That also passed, though there was some confusion over his insistence that the agenda not be approved. Things were made clear when he motioned to add an item to the HR section focusing on Robinson's annual review/evaluation.

Chris Fisher argued against it, noting that he's getting tired of seeing items added to the agenda at the last second, a move that denies both board members and the public a chance to prepare for them. I think this is an eminently reasonable argument, and in fact I'm sure much of the reason Rick and Josh don't add things to the agenda until the meeting starts: it is precisely to deny their opponents on the board and in the District Office a chance to prepare. Rick and Josh obviously prep their supporters beforehand.

It's pretty pathetic behavior from the viewpoint of democracy, but a neat political tactic if one is Machiavellian about it - and Rick is nothing if not a follower of The Prince, even if he doesn't know it.

At any rate, Wineteer got what he wanted. A discussion item was added to the agenda regarding the timeline of Robinson's evaluation process.

Part Three: The Superintendent's Report

This is generally listed without any sub-headings; it would be nice if Robinson would add them or ask Sprenger to add them, as just about every other section on the agenda contains subheadings detailing the topics to be covered.

Robinson did note that any board member is welcome to contact him and request that particular topics get covered in his report, a move that is both smart policy and smart politics. I'm curious as to who, if anyone, takes him up on it.

Robinson had three topics to cover in his report:

First, Steve Kelley introduced Dick Behn, who got a pretty good round of applause from the crowd who were mostly Sand Ridge parents and supporters. I found it interesting - the applause, while not as loud as that granted to Alexander when he wins, actually sounded meaningful to me. That, coupled with the fact that Rick and Josh both voted to approve Behn, suggests that they had given up on that particular fight. I wonder if someone suggested that would be a good idea to them, or if they figured it out all on their own?

In either case, there was no indication of regret or apology for not hiring Behn at the last meeting, despite nothing have obviously changed about the situation.

Second, Robinson asked the Board about the Continous Improvement Plan. This was a sore subject at the last meeting when Alexander threw a temper tantrum about not getting to read it beforehand & before it was turned in to the state, claiming - as Chris Fisher did earlier - that he, Alexander, needed time to prepare. This time, Robinson had given them copies in advance.... but they had no questions. Not a one.

I took it as more evidence that the temper tantrum last time was pure grandstanding on the part of Alexander.

Third, Robinson and resident tech guru Brian Bray talked about the pending shift from the existing Student Information System (SIS) to something new. The district wanted to shift to something called ESIS, which is apparently used by 55% of students statewide, though the emphasis on number of students vs. number of districts, coupled with the noting of Portland, Eugene, and Bend as ESIS users, suggests that it's concentrated in urban districts - I wonder what rural districts use?

The board chatted about this for a bit, maintaining a surprising bit of civility. The shift was necessary due to the massive inadequacies of the current system (it's so old it uses a black screen with green letters!), Robinson and Bray pointed out, and cost-neutral when it came to paying for ESIS or going with the "homebrew" (to use Wineteer's well-chosen word) setup the LBL ESD was cobbling together. As much as I hate contracting out services on such a large scale, the idea of a unit as small as the ESD maintaining such a custom system seems pretty daunting. Coupled with the fact that Bray pointed out that ESIS was the most feature-laden of the choices, well, I have to agree with him.

Also, Bray wins the prize for the most interesting corporatized phrase of the night: "an environment that is as task-saturated as Lebanon."

Nice.

Part Four: School Achievement Report.

This was on Cascades. I don't really have anything to say about it other than this bit of pure political speculation:

Is the fact that all the reports are upbeat and positive going to start affecting people's opinions of Jim Robinson? Should it? It sure seems like he's getting results and happy principals...

Part Five: Human Resources

This is where Josh had inserted into the agenda a discussion item regarding the timeline for Robinson's yearly evaluation. Earlier, Sprenger and Wineteer had gotten into it over this, since Sprenger had had a hand in creating the timeline in the first place, and knew that the Board was doing just fine in keeping to it. However, this was mercifully short.

Part Six: The Administration's Report on Sand Ridge

I am going to give this section its own post. Said post will probably be longer than my summary of the rest of the meeting put together. With any luck, it will be up tomorrow. And it will be a doozy, I think, as Sand Ridge was the main source of conflict at the meeting.

Also, I left after this agenda item, so this is the end of the summary of the meeting. More things may have happened - the RFP for legal services, which was another contested issue last time, was on the agenda.

It was suggested to me that there was an new undercurrent floating around - that people are getting tired of the grandstanding and shenanigans, and just want the board to get to work. Looking back, I think there might be some truth to this. On the other hand, the behavior of almost everyone but Robinson during the Sand Ridge items seemed the same as it's always been; certain people seem to be typecast or are typecasting themselves. More on that later...

Anyone have any reactions to the meeting?