Doug Bates/The Herald Oakridge School District Supt. Reta Doland in the new multi-purpose room under construction at the high school-junior high complex.
By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — By unanimous vote Monday night, and with no discussion, the Oakridge School Board renewed the contract of District Supt. Reta Doland.
The action was expected in the wake of a positive performance review Doland received from the board this winter.
Monday night’s 4-0 vote, with Board Chairman John Weddle absent, came as Oakridge voters are still deciding on a crowded ballot for openings on the board. Six candidates are vying for three positions, and a key issue is whether Doland should be given another two-year contract for the $120,000-a-year superintendent’s job.
The Oakridge Teacher Association, the union representing about 40 district employees, overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in Doland this winter. A parent group submitted a petition bearing more than 300 signatures calling for her immediate termination.
Both groups accused Doland of creating a “toxic work environment” and of failing to communicate.
A third-party consultant was hired by the board in response to the furor. Although he advised against Doland’s termination, he did conclude she needed to perform better in a few key areas and improve her communications.
Monday night, all four board members who were present for the virtual (Zoom) meeting — Susan Hardy, Tami Edmunds, Kevin Martin and Mikal McPherson — were mum on the subject as they voted to renew Doland’s contract.
Public comment was allowed only at the end of the meeting. During that segment, Hardy, the board co-chair presiding in Weddle’s absence, read a statement received from board candidate Charlie Ross of Westfir. Ross, a critic of Doland’s performance, pleaded with the board not to make any major decisions, such as renewal of the superintendent’s contract, while voters were deciding on a new school board that might make a different decision.
By the time Ross’s statement was read, however, the board had already renewed Doland’s contract.
That prompted a public admonishment from Ross, who was following the meeting on Zoom.
“The way this meeting went tonight . . . contradicts the spirit of Oregon’s Open Meetings Law,” Ross said.
By delaying public comment to the end of its meetings, the board stifles “the ability of the public to comment before a decision,” Ross said.
More typically, public bodies arrange their meeting agendas with public comment at the outset. The Oakridge and Westfir city councils are familiar examples.
Instead of a traditional prom, a ‘Maskerade’
In other business Monday night, the school board heard high school Principal Greg Chapman report on plans for traditional end-of-year events for graduating seniors.
Rather than trying to have a conventional senior prom during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, the school will have an outdoor “Maskerade” in the high school courtyard, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on May 22.
“It will be something fun for kids that is as close to normal as possible,” Chapman said.
There will be music, goodie bags, a photo booth and dancing — “but not slow dancing,” and no food, because of the mask requirement, he said.
Plans for the commencement ceremony on June 12 remain very much unsettled, Chapman said, because no one knows what COVID-19 protocols will be in place that many weeks from now. He said he’s hoping the weather will cooperate for an outdoor event on the football field, with each graduate bringing three to four guests who would be safely separated from other guests in the stands.
The event will almost certainly be live-streamed for those who can’t attend, he said.
In other action, the board continued to grapple with how to deal with the district’s unfunded PERS liability of just over $7 million. By unanimous vote, board members approved a resolution committing the district to join others in a pension obligation bond program — an “opt-in” decision that can be rescinded up until July 6 if interest rates or other metrics become unfavorable in the weeks ahead.
