PIE Board Moves for Direct Negotiations With District

When I wrote my gigantic post on the Sand Ridge renewal debacle, there was one thing I suggested that I hoped would not happen.

It's happening. Or, at least, Rick Alexander, Josh Wineteer, and Jay Jackson are doing their best to make it happen.

I said this:

One other possibility is that Alexander will try and micromanage the contract [emphasis added], or at least give directions to the negotiating team that undermine the interests of the district.

Turns out Jackson and Alexander convinced the PIE board (though who knows how much convincing it took; they may have been on the same page already) to do this:

By an unanimous vote Tuesday night, the People Involved in Education (PIE) board of directors approved a resolution to negotiate directly with the Lebanon Community School District School Board over Sand Ridge Charter School's new contract.

I am rendered speechless at the audacity of this move. The politics of brute force, indeed.

There are a couple of points to be made about this:

1. It fits that 'rejection of expertise' mentality I had wondered about.

2. It definitely counts as micromanaging... I had wondered how Alexander planned to get himself on the negotiating team; I guess he intends for the team to come to him.

3. Of course, it is also clearly designed to cut the Superintendent and his staff out of the process as much as possible. Interestingly, I wonder if the goal is to get the lawyers out of the process? I would remind Alexander (and everyone else) that there is a reason lawyers are involved in complex negotiations: They are certified experts and have to resolve the messes contract violations (and sloppily written contracts) create. They are not just for show.

Speaking of lawyers, I see that Jay Jackson is an active member with the Oregon Bar Association... with two disciplinary actions against him in the last 11 years (click the "Show Disciplinary History button). I wonder what they were for... and whether or not he, as chair of PIE, will be the head of PIE's 'negotiating team'.

I predict that PIE does indeed want the respective counsels out of the room (assuming they are scheduled to be there in the first place) since it still leaves Jackson in the room.

Wait.... on second thought, I'll amend that. PIE and Jackson (and Alexander and Wineteer) won't care if counsel is present, since they will simply ignore any legal advice they don't like. Who needs the law, anyway?

Alexander and Wineteer (and sadly, Shimmin, though since she never bothers speaking in public who knows what she really thinks) will almost certainly meet behind the scenes with Jackson and the PIE board to arrange for the terms of the contract to be incredibly favorable to Sand Ridge, so much so that they will provide for little to no accountability, oversight or enforcement mechanisms on the part of the district - which will guarantee that the long list of violations will not get fixed. This is my prediction.

Remember, it's illegal to collude with other board members outside meetings for the purpose of planning action. This whole episode is starting to reek of it.

As a result, I would like to see the Lebanon community turn out and convince the Lebanon School Board not to accept the PIE Board's offer of pistols at dawn direct negotiations. Doing so will most likely further hamper the LCSD to do its job, and in the long run, that will start to affect what happens to not only the Sand Ridge students, but the students in the rest of the district as well.

This is another step in a play for power (and public money without concurrent accountability) on the part of Jackson, Alexander and Wineteer that comes at the public's cost. When will the public decide they have had enough?

Further comment on the article will come in another post to be written after I recover my equilibrium. Watching this district face the demise of its own functionality in slow motion is getting to me.