Sweet Home School Board cautious over Rural School Board Caucus

Ethan Hoagland

After cautious deliberation, Sweet Home’s school board moved to create the Oregon Rural School Board Members Caucus through the Oregon School Boards Association, but voted to reject amending the OSBA’s bylaws. If the caucus is created and the amended bylaws adopted, it would receive a seat at the OSBA’s Legislative Policy Committee.

Board members were primarily concerned with whether the rural caucus would give them more of a voice at the state level, or just lead to urban school district policy filtering down to Sweet Home.

“It’s gonna give rural communities a better voice, or is it inroads to infuse rural communities with more of the LGBT, social justice stuff?” board member Floyd Neuschwander asked while discussing the resolution to create the rural caucus. “I can’t decide which angle they’re coming from.” He added he’s not a fan of the OSBA.

Board Secretary Dale Keene responded by saying the whole purpose of the caucus is to have a say.

Chairman Jason Redick defended the idea of the caucus as a bulwark against outside influences on Sweet Home’s school district.

“I look at it and I say, okay if you have a group of rural schools who tend to be less into the politics of Portland public schools, Salem, Eugene 4J, Ashland, some of those ones– it, to me, would be a good idea to pool that and push more against some of that,” Redick said. For Redick, the caucus would help “keep Portland in Portland, and we’ll do our own thing over here.”

After some more deliberation, Neuschwander considered himself convinced and motioned to adopt the resolution creating the Oregon Rural School Board Members Caucus. It passed unanimously.

However, the school board wasn’t willing to support a resolution amending the OSBA’s bylaws. The amended bylaws include language to create the rural caucus and designate a seat on the Legislative Policy Committee.

Board member Mary Massey expressed immediate concern that the amended bylaws could include something that wouldn’t benefit the Sweet Home School District. District Business Manager Kevin Strong pointed out that the amended bylaws would open up a seat on the LPC for the rural caucus, which could give Sweet Home more of a voice. He clarified that right now, Linn County is represented on the LPC by Sarah Finger McDonald of Corvallis. Earlier in the meeting, the board voted to abstain from approving McDonald to fill that seat for another term.

“So, in order to get our rural caucus, we gotta accept all their changes to their bylaws?” Neuschwander asked. “That sounds like congress.”

“Very accurate, Floyd,” Strong responded.

After more deliberation about how amending the bylaws would create a seat for the rural caucus on the LBC, Neuschwander reiterated skepticism about approving the amendment.

“In my experience, most change isn’t for the better. There’s always somebody who has an agenda,” Neuschwander said before making a motion to not adopt the amended bylaws. Massey seconded the motion, and the board voted 6-1 to not adopt. Secretary Keene was the lone oppositional vote.

In an email statement, the OSBA said in response to the board’s decisions: “OSBA has been working for over a year to establish a rural school board caucus to help amplify the voice of rural schools statewide. As a statewide organization serving all of Oregon’s 197 school districts as well as education service districts and community colleges, OSBA embraces its role in serving many voices. Policies are adopted by school boards at the local level, based on bills passed by the Legislature and signed into law.”

District defends against academic standards concerns

During the board’s public comment period, Emmanuel Grajeda addressed the board with data he said show Sweet Home’s 11th graders falling behind in math, science and language arts. Grajeda also repeated the misleading claim that the Oregon Department of Education suspended all graduation requirements.

District Business Manager Strong prepared a presentation to respond to Grajeda’s concerns. Strong started by providing a sample test question from the ODE website. He used the sample math question, which concerned measuring candles for a film project, to illustrate the point that standardized testing might fail to capture the whole picture of student capability.

Strong also pointed out that the Sweet Home School District has one of the highest homeless student proportions in the state, and that 100% of district students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Chairman Redick stepped in to address the claim that ODE suspended graduation standards.

“That is a dangerous lie that is exploding out there,” Redick said. “Graduation requirements are no different today than they were before. The kids still have to attend the same number of credits, pass the classes, all of those things. What has been suspended is one assessment test.”

Board accepts retiring, rehiring of Steve Thorpe

High school math teacher and wrestling head coach Steve Thorpe will officially retire at the end of the year, before promptly resuming his duties at the start of 2024. It’s part of an agreement approved by the board to retire and rehire Thorpe.

Thorpe said nothing will change about his role with the district.

“This is my 33rd year in this profession, teaching and coaching all at the same place,” Thorpe said. “And I wanna continue. I still love what I do. I absolutely love what I do. And I even more so love where I get to do it.”

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