By Irene Barajas, South County Correspondent for the Tillamook County Pioneer
In a questionably legal process, Nestucca Valley School District’s Board of Directors voted 3-to-1 in favor of passing an updated and reprioritized District Strategic Plan during their December 11th meeting https://www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/nesucca-valley-school-district-board-meeting-dec-11-2025-recap-community-comments-about-transparency/
First, some background.
The Strategic Plan was the sole focus of a multi-day workshop in Spring 2024. It is common practice for this to occur every five years or so. More than a dozen staff, parents, and community members came together to rewrite the Vision and Mission Statements, as well as give the 2024 Board Members their opinions on ordering the 20 Ranking Objectives. The Objectives are used by District Administrators to make financial decisions. For example, Objective #1 on the list will be get financial prioritization long before #20. The 2024 Board also asked the community at large to provide input on the Objectives at numerous Board Meetings and Town Halls in the months leading up to the Spring Workshop.
Prior to the vote, parents and educators alike spoke up at the meeting with concerns about the Board seeming to disregard the community’s hard work. Some also pointed out that the Board’s decision to make changes with no outside input was in direct conflict with the four newest Members’ campaign claims of wanting the people in the district to feel more seen and heard. Many were asking them to reconsider approving the changes due to the reorganization of the document’s Objectives. The lack of alignment with the document’s Mission Statement was a concern, as well as having Mental and Social Emotional Awareness pushed from its previous position of #4 all the way down to #19 in a school known to have issues with bullying and attendance.
One community member, who also asked the Board not to approve the revamped Plan, had differing issues with it from all the other speakers. She stated she was happy with the drop of focus on MSEA but felt that leaving mention of such things in the Mission Statement “just complicates it” and would like for them to be removed.
Regardless of hearing more than a half dozen requests to not approve the new Strategic Plan over two meetings, and no voices supporting a yes vote, Chairman Greg Woods, along with Directors Jason Hagan and Kayla Cole, voted in favor of adopting the changes. Long-standing Director Diane Boisa, the only current Board Member to hold a seat prior to July 2025, voted against approving the document. Vice Chair Sherry Hartford was not in attendance.
On to the intriguing bits, beginning with some more important information to keep in mind.
The meeting on the 11th had originally been planned for Tuesday the 9th but was rescheduled due to flooding in much of the county. The agenda for the 9th had been available to the public on the NVSD website since late the previous week, and remained there, unaltered, until after the meeting on the 9th would have happened. It contained the same version of the Strategic Plan as it was initially presented at the November meeting. Here’s where things get a bit sketchy.
Apparently unnoticed by attendees of the December 11th meeting, myself included, AFTER the originally scheduled meeting would have taken place, the Strategic Plan was further altered, AND the wording regarding the changes to it on the agenda were changed. Also important to note, none of the Directors present on the 11th made any reference to the brand-new changes, including Chairman Greg Woods not reading out the full title of the Action Item from the agenda when asking for a vote. He neglected to do this not just once, but twice, during the December 11th meeting.
As mentioned in my previous article, Chairman Woods initially asked for a vote on the amended Plan by only saying, “Ok, um, I guess, do I have a motion to accept? Do you want to talk more on it at this point?” He then had a brief exchange with Director Hagan, who was confused about what document the attendees and Board, himself included, had been discussing for the prior 20+ minutes, and asked Woods “Aren’t we coming back to it?”
After clearing up the confusion by reminding Hagan of which document was the current focus, Chairman Woods requested a vote the second time by asking his fellow Board Members, “Do we have a motion to accept our Strategic Plan? Do you want to talk about it more?”
At no point did Woods read aloud the full action item from the agenda as he should have. It read, “Approve Board Reprioritization of the District Strategic Plan with changes to page 5 of the document.” Prior to the agenda for the December 11th meeting, the reprioritization of the Plan was simply listed as a Consent Agenda item alongside the minutes from the November meeting and the updated Board Governance Handbook {insert link to other sidebar article?}. Items listed on the Consent Agenda are intended to be things the Board feels are acceptable as-is, do not require additional Public Reading, and which they have no intention of discussing any further.
Now, having the Plan moved from the Consent Agenda on the 9th to the Action Items on the 11th is not the problem. The changes themselves, clarified below, aren’t even the issue. However, the fact that the Plan itself was altered between the two dates is highly problematic and quite likely illegal.
The additional alteration of the document between those dates implies NVSD Board Members met, discussed, and/or made decisions about it outside of a Public Meeting or workshop, and gave no notice to the public of such a meeting. These actions potentially violate several Oregon Laws.
ORS 199.050.0020 clearly states, “Serial Communications Prohibited: A quorum of the members of a governing body shall not, outside of a meeting conducted in compliance with the Public Meetings Law, use a series of communications of any kind, directly or through intermediaries, for the purpose of deliberating or deciding on any matter that is within the jurisdiction of the governing body.” This directive is also found in NVSD Policy BD/BDA, “Board Meetings.”
ORS 199.050.0015 covers Meetings Subject to the Public Meetings Law. It states, “A private meeting where a quorum of a governing body engages in discussions or communications that are part of the governing body’s decision-making process on matters within the authority of the governing body violates the Public Meetings Law.” This is also found in NVSD Policy BD/BDA.
ORS 199.050.0040 speaks to Notice Requirements. “Public notice, reasonably calculated to give actual notice, is required for all meetings of a governing body.” This is also found in NVSD Policy BD/BDA.
ORS 199.050.0050 gives directive on Public Attendance and Meeting Locations, starting with, “All meetings of a governing body, other than executive sessions, shall be open to the public.” This is also found in NVSD Policy BD/BDA.
Additionally, according to NVSD’s own Board Governance Handbook, protocol 2.6 says “The Board Chair and the Superintendent will discuss the contents of the agenda and the process that will be followed at the meeting, in advance of the meeting.” This would imply that Supt. Richwine was also aware of the changes to page 5 of the plan and also did not choose to or think to mention them.
The four newest, recently elected members of NVSD’s Board ran their campaign strongly on transparency and community/family involvement but are clearly failing on following through with their promises, in addition to seemingly breaking the Laws mentioned above. What exactly are they trying to hide? Why? What was on page 5 of the Plan, and what changes did the Board decide on outside of the public purview and then also fail to mention during the voting process?
Page 5 is the Strategic Plan Overview. Much of the wording has been completely removed, though they left the bullet pointed components untouched. As evidenced in the screenshots below, taken from the December 9th and December 11th meeting packets, they deleted from the Overview:
“The following is a description of the purpose, components, definitions, process, and timelines related to the plan.
The Strategic Plan is a political, accountability, compliance, and inspirational document that serves three main purposes. First, the plan engages community members and provides the Board’s political direction and accountability in addressing the vision, mission, ranked objectives, annual outcomes, and metrics. Second, the Strategic Plan provides the source document used for preparing the State of Oregon mandates.”
The revised Overview now only contains the first two and last two sentences of the paragraphs found before the Components:
“The Nestucca Valley School District’s Strategic Plan, adopted by the Board of Trustees, is the management plan for the District. The Plan was originally developed in collaboration with representatives from constituency groups within the Nestucca Valley community. {Insert the deleted text here} The Strategic Plan, with action taken by the Board in the ranking of the objectives, provides clarity and inspiration to the Superintendent and staff in addressing the priorities of the Board and the community. The components of the Strategic Plan are defined below:”
From 12-09-2025 Packet (Unchanged from the 11-18-2025 Meeting Packet and the previous 2024 Document):
From 12-11-2025 Packet:
The next few pages go over the timeline of the Strategic Plan, which is a multi-year process. The top of page 6 states, “Implementation of the Plan continues throughout the year and is evaluated, analyzed, and revised annually” and page 7 clarifies even further, saying, “Annually, the Board will approve the Strategic Plan in June for the subsequent year.”
Additionally, NVSD Policy regarding District Goals (Code AE) states, “The district will develop a partnership with staff, parents, and community members… to identify and revise goals… The district will maintain a strategic plan that is reviewed and evaluated annually… The district will work with staff, parents and community members through 21st Century School Councils, local school committees and advisory committees to develop district goals that support the physical and cognitive growth and development of students….”
Clearly, per the Plan’s own directives and District Policy, the Plan as a whole is only meant to be revised with staff, parent, and community input, as done in Spring 2024, and approved by the Board each June for the following school year, which was already done this past June by the Board Members seated at that time.
Why has the current Board chosen to act in opposition of the directives and policy and make significant changes to the Plan with ZERO outside input and after it was already approved as directed earlier this year? Why would the Board also meet behind the scenes and decide to remove the description of the purpose, definitions, process, and timelines related to the Strategic Plan and then pass the new Plan without publicly addressing them in any way?
The Board’s intentions are unclear and unknown. One could read into the decisions in many ways, though they feel blatantly contradictory to the newest members’ campaign promises of transparency and parent involvement. Perhaps they intend to discourage public engagement. Perhaps they hope to not be held accountable for the results their reprioritization shows. Perhaps they don’t intend to comply with State of Oregon mandates. All of those were in the section the NVSD Board chose to delete.
What is clear is that Directors Woods, Hagan and Cole, with their votes in favor of passing their privately and personally revised new Strategic Plan, give little to no regard to State Law, nor to the District’s own directives and policies.
If you, too, would like answers from the Board about their actions and decisions, their email addresses are GregW@nestucca.k12.or.us, SherryH@nestucca.k12.or.us, JasonH@nestucca.k12.or.us, KaylaC@nestucca.k12.or.us, and DianeB@nestucca.k12.or.us.
Superintendent Richwine can be reached at KenR@nestucca.k12.or.us.