For the Future

After the recall election and the board elections this year, our committee's efforts will shift to encouraging the board to find quality leadership for the district.

In the months and years to come, we hope that our focus can be on positives rather than negatives, and that we will be useful in promoting a healthy and friendly interaction between the school district and the community.  But we will always be watchful and ready to speak up if any indiscretion arises in the future.

Our work will include:
Facilitate communication between community citizens and district leadership, Promote transparency and integrity in district administration, Promote awareness in the community of the achievements and needs of our local educational system, and Bring community support and resources to aid the district in providing a quality learning environment for our students.

How to Help

Are you interested in seeing good things happen for Central School District, but feeling plenty busy already or just a little shy?  Don't worry, there are many different ways to help, and we'll appreciate any help you feel comfortable giving! 

Some examples of needs to fill:

• Sign the recall petition and invite 3-5 friends to sign
• Share a link to Citizens for 13J Excellence with all your friends!  http://citizensfor13jexcellence.blogspot.com/
• Spread the word on the need for recall when the actual recall election approaches
• Come to school board meetings on the first Monday of the month
• Read the school board meeting minutes here
• You have good taste in friends!  Encourage them to run for the open board positions
• Host a party, or assist in hosting a party
• Post a sign in your yard
• Man a signature collection table
• Lend your graphics design skills
• Help with copying, hauling tables & chairs to events, hanging signs, etc.
• Donate funds and encourage others to donate
• Assist in creating signs

As specific needs arise, we'll post needs from time to time on this blog and on our Facebook account.

Please contact Mona Hinds or John Boyack to help.  Please contact Jill Love to make a donation.

Thank you for your support!

Why Susan Stoops should be recalled

As board chair, Susan Stoops sets the tone for the entire board.  During her tenure as chair, working relationships among the stakeholders in our district have worsened, and lines of communication have been effectively severed.  The board has become dysfunctional, and though it is the designated legal entity that can place checks on the superintendent, through Susan Stoops’ influence it has failed to do so.  This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

She has used her position to restrict communication by:

• Promoting a set of operating agreements that would channel all communication through the chair or the superintendent and prevent the free flow of ideas and opinions
• Limiting public comments at board meetings
• Preventing discussion between board members and the public at board meetings
• Refusing to respond to public comments or concerns either at board meetings or subsequently

She has failed to respond to concerns voiced by the staff or the public:

• She never followed up on the vote of no confidence by staff, instead professing her unwavering support for the superintendent who was the subject of that vote.
• She never followed up on concerns raised by members of the public at a community forum in November of 2009 despite her promises to do so
• She claimed that no complaints regarding the superintendent had been received despite multiple, on-going concerns raised at board meetings
• She failed to respond when formal complaints were filed – which is a violation of the board’s policy.

John's Response to a Concerned Citizen's Request for Information

Thank you for your inquiry and for the maturity with which you approach the question.  It shows that you treat community concerns and your vote with the seriousness they deserve.  I will respond from my own experiences and with the resources our group has assembled.

First, let me assure you we are not out to ruin a reputation.  I cannot find fault with Susan Stoops' value as a person, friend or neighbor.  We do not attack her character or pesonality.  Our grievance is with the mis-management of the school district.  We have run out of patience with the school board's inability or unwillingness to provide effective oversight on its executive, Superintendent Joseph Hunter; and its unwillingness to listen to community voices of concern regarding Hunter or regarding its own decisions.

I am a novice to local politics. I began following Central School District issues last September when I ran headlong into unethical and wasteful conduct in the district.  My concern was money.  When I brought that issue to the forefront, I found that the district was full of unhappy teachers and that there were others in the community with serious concerns about the district leadership.  This group has now become the executive committee of Citizens for 13J Excellence.  You can read brief biographical statements here.

Some of our best teachers are looking to get out of the district.  The teachers submitted an overwhelming vote of no confidence on district leadership two years ago, and were officially ignored, but publicly accused of falsifying the count.  The teachers worked half a year with no contract while the superintendent's contrtact is never shorter than 2 years - it is a three-year contract updated annually.  His contract continues to provide more and more generous cash compensation while teachers are being cut and class-sizes increased. 

No expense was spared on the new (and, I admit, beautiful) high school renovation, including low-return investments such as solar panels.  The theater has every frill imaginable for a high school - but not all of it is working.  When parts of the project didn't quite fit into the 48-million dollar bond, monies from the general fund - in the amount that could have paid four teachers for a year, were used.  Small loans were taken to augment the project.  This was during a recession when construction bids were unusually low. 

Worst of all, in the finishing and fixtures budgeet area (2 million-ish), the project seems to be missing many receipts!  There is no proof of competitive bidding, and many purchases were made far ABOVE PUBLISHED catalog prices.  And when the community clamors for an audit of the expenses, the school board has balked at the cost.  We can afford to increase the superintendent's compensation but we can't afford the proper audit costing less than 1/1000th of the bond expenditures?  Seeming fishy, isn't it?

Meanwhile, the superintendent's conduct toward his teachers and staff is frequently the subject of formal and informal complaint.  The district does not provide a working environment where employees are respected; instead, it is managed strongly from the top down.  Another superintendent has been brought in as a buffer between Hunter and some employees who have lodged a complaint.  It was that serious, but not serious enough to put him on paid administrative leave?

And what does the school board do with these formal complaints?  Until recently, nothing.  But it's HOW they do nothing that leads us back to Susan Stoops.  There are three members of the board who will advance the concerns voiced by teachers and public.  They are Kathy Zehner, Mary Shellenbarger and Paul Evans.  There are three (four until one resigned leaving an open position) who consistently praise the superintendent and disregard criticism of him.  Chief among those who sees it the superintendent's way is Susan Stoops.  And as chairperson she has the biggest megaphone.  By policy she controls the communication from othe board to the district.  By preference, she has also chosen to control the communication from the district to the board, keeping some board members in the dark on some issues.  She actually advanced a policy prohibiting school board members from having discussions with the public on any matter touching the schools except within the school board meeting.

I cannot speak to her motives for this behavior.  In her heart of hearts she probably believes that what she and Hunter are doing are right and that the critical voices are wrong.  I belive this is a dangerous mindset for a leader, however virtuous the intention.  As the governing body of the school district, the school board should be providing skeptical oversight of the superintendent, regardless his popularity or reputation.

Like most school districts in the nation today, our school district faces some really difficult problems.  There just isn't enough tax revenue coming in to run the schools the way they have been.  In the face of this kind of challenge it is unfortunate that we are arguing about ethics and oversight.  But we certainly won't resolve the coming difficult issues with a divided school board and an unethical superintendent.

Bottom line: the district is being mismanaged.  The school board is the designated entity that has power to fix the problem, and they have not done anything about it.  The school board reports to us, the community, and we are blessed as Americans and Oregonians to have the priveledge of voting and the priveledge of recalling our elected officials.  We made a mistake and now we should fix it.

Archive of Pages - recall plan

The Recall Process:
Signing the recall petition does not remove Stoops from office, or even indicate that you want her removed from office - it merely requests that a special recall election occur to allow voters to make that choice:

Step One:  Create committee structure; prepare 200 word statement indicating why Stoops should be recalled; get approval from county clerk for statement and signature sheets; file all required paper work with county clerk; establish bank account and begin accounting for all contributions and expenditures through ORESTAR.  The approvals, the bank account, and the filings all need to happen within a few days of one another.  Our goal is to have this step completed and be ready to start collecting signatures by February 28th.

Step Two:  Collect 1001 valid signatures.  We still need to aim for at least 1,200 as some will be deemed invalid.  We have 90 days from the time our petitions are approved by the county clerk to complete this step.  We will be brainstorming and planning for this phase this evening.  If we get approval towards the end of February, we would have until sometime around the end of May to collect the required number of signatures.  The faster we can complete step the better.

Step Three:  The county clerk validates our signatures.  Stoops has five days to either resign, effective immediately or face a recall election.  The recall election would be held no later than 35 days after the 5 day period to resign.  In the event of a recall election, Stoops is invited to write a justification statement indicating why she should remain in office.  All voters in the district would be sent ballots and the outcome will be decided by a simple majority of those voting.  The costs of the actual election would be paid by the district.  This step would be completed by late June, early July.  The new school board will be sworn in at the July board meeting and it is they, depending on the exact timing, who would choose someone to replace Stoops. 


The following is a preliminary draft of the statement which will appear on the recall petition forms

Susan Meikle-Stoops has failed to represent the public interest in her role as a board member and as chairperson of the Central School Board.  She has failed to provide oversight of the superintendent and has allowed the caustic and dysfunctional relationship that exists between the superintendent and district staff to worsen.  She is responsible for the antagonistic atmosphere of school board meetings.  Ms. Meikle-Stoops has a special responsibility to keep lines of communication open.  Instead, she has resolutely ignored concerns raised by district employees and the public - including the vote of no-confidence taken by teachers and classified staff in 2009 and questions regarding bond expenditures.  She has arbitrarily and inconsistently limited public comment and prohibited discussion at board meetings.  She has used her position as chair to discourage individual board members from speaking directly with the community and staff of the school district.  She has failed to share important information with other board members in a timely manner.  It is her failed leadership as board chair that has led to the current crisis in our district.  Allowing Susan Meikle-Stoops to remain in this position is a disservice to district staff, the community, and most especially children.

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