By Irene Barajas, South County Correspondent for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Actions taken during Nestucca Valley School District’s Board Meeting this past Monday, Aug 18th, left many of the nearly 100 community members in attendance shocked, angry, and apprehensive. Lifelong Nestucca resident, alumni, former coach, counselor, teacher, and principal, Misty Wharton, resigned as Superintendent, the position she has held for the past eight years.
While a small number of attendees at the meeting appeared to be nothing short of gleeful, the vast majority voiced disbelief and distress. Though the Board gave very little time for the shocking news to be digested, attempting to move on with the agenda without any sort of farewell statement to or about Ms. Wharton, not even a perfunctory “Thank you for your service,” several attendees spoke out from their seats in response to the announcement, calling it “heartbreaking” and “really awful”, and others saying “I can’t believe you guys did that!” and “I am so appalled!”
Concerns were also about what this will mean for the district’s students and staff, as no interim Superintendent was announced to fulfill Ms. Wharton’s duties until the Board hires a replacement. Until then, Nestucca’s Board of Directors, four out of five of whom have only held their seats since July 1st, are in charge of running the district.
Ms. Wharton, visibly emotional, addressed those present, reminding them that now is the time for community involvement. She said, “Its time to step up and show support of our amazing staff and students.”
While the loss of Supt. Wharton was the most notable event of the evening, it was not the only divisive moment. The four new Directors, all of whom ran their campaigns based strongly on fiscal responsibility, voted against raising the Excise Tax collected by the school for new residential builds, currently $1.63 per sq ft, by $.04.
The vote took place after community member April Bailey addressed the Board, requesting they vote against raising the rate. Director Greg Woods’ referred to Dir. Kayla Cole’s statements at July’s meeting regarding Tillamook and Neah-Kah-Nie School Districts’ excise taxes, $1.45 and $1.00 respectively. Dir. Sherry Hartford, who manages 14 rental properties in Hebo, said, “Since we’re trying to mirror NKN, shouldn’t our excise tax match theirs?” and mentioned repeatedly that she’d like to see Nestucca’s excise tax rate go down, not up.
Long-time Director Diane Boisa was the sole opposing vote, reminding her fellow Directors that TSD is funded by the state and relies less on supplemental revenue streams. And, NKN has “humongous” timber revenue, not an accurate comparison to our district. She pointed out that the money collected in the increase would mean other funds would be free to help support the Board’s desire to create more availability of college credit courses at the High School.
Kim Seals, NVSD’s Fiscal Administrative Assistant, was allowed to comment mid-discussion via Zoom, pointing out to the Board that NKN passed a bond measure to help pay their bills because they are unable to with their current financial situation. Mrs. Seals clarified that, on existing homes, the tax is only applied to the square footage of added space, not the total square footage. She continued that in the past, the money has gone towards improvements in the District that include upgrades to the water system, improving the facilities for the kids, and the purchasing of computers. She also reminded those listening that Dir. Hartford has advocated against raising the excise tax in previous years as a community member, due to her role as a property manager.
Ultimately, the four opposing Directors were not swayed by arguments supporting the increase and proceeded to decline the potential additional income to the district, with Dir. Hartford making the motion to deny the increase and Dir. Jason Hagan seconding it.
Dir. Boisa read aloud two emails she had received, one from a “very irate community member” about the previous Board’s early renewal of Ms. Wharton’s superintendent contract in June, stating she wanted to address the questions and concerns publicly in case others shared them. She said she’s always felt her first responsibility {as a director} is to the students of the district, not to any one faction of the community, and not to the executive employees of the district. She also clarified that historically, the board doesn’t wait until the final days of a superintendent’s contract to renew it when they value them, adding, “And we valued Misty… we believe she did an excellent job and needed her to continue, for the sake of our students.”
There was discussion by the Board, again, about offering college-credit classes to NVSD’s high school students. Principal Emily Chadwick pointed out that the majority of these classes are held online using the District’s computers and other technology (things that are able to be covered by the excise tax). Dir. Hartford, who initiated voting down the excise tax increase, said she wants all students to be able to take college-credit classes if they want to, for free, regardless of the costs to the district. Dir. Woods asked about the possibilities of offering classes from more colleges than we currently do. The Board decided to bring this discussion to a Workshop session that has not yet been scheduled.
There was also discussion around the decision by administration to move K8 teacher Peter Deam into the newly-created role of Dean of Students at the high school. Mr. Deam will be wearing many hats in this position, including but not limited to: assisting with student scheduling and discipline, college & career counseling, as well assisting the athletic director.
Dir. Hartford questioned the necessity of the role, saying she wanted to talk about it at the future Workshop. Dir. Woods agreed, ignoring Ms. Wharton’s reminder to the Board that personnel decisions are not under the prevue of the Board, and that decision would need to be made by the incoming Superintendent. The Board moved the discussion to a Workshop.
One high point that was shared during the often tense meeting was that state testing results show NHS students surpassed the state standards in Science, Math and Language Arts this past year.
Additionally, it was announced that the three incredible Student Heros (Teagan Slavens, Zeth Chapin, and Brady Hurliman) who assisted NHS assistant football coach Frank Elsasser during a medical emergency in June, without a doubt saving his life, will be celebrated at the Bobcat Bash on September 10th.
Packets, minutes and videos from this meeting and previous ones, as well the meeting calendar, can be found here: https://nestucca.k12.or.us/20037_4
NVSD’s next Board Meeting will be held on September 22nd at 7pm.