EDITOR’S NOTE: There are two additional articles about topics on this Board meeting agenda – changes to the Governance Handbook and to the Board’s Strategic Plan that include community comments about the Board’s processes, transparency and the Board’s actions. We will be publishing those pieces after the Christmas holiday. Our South County correspondent’s thorough reporting to ensure accuracy included reviewing all recordings, notes, and documents, leading to lengthy articles to provide the community with unbiased facts.
By Irene Barajas, South County Correspondent for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Nestucca Valley School District held their last scheduled public Board Meeting of the year this Thursday, December 11th. The meeting had originally been planned for Tuesday the 9th but was rescheduled due to flooding throughout the county. While the meeting was just under an hour long, there were a lot of important details in the comments by both the Board and the attendees that needed to be mentioned, as the length of this article reflects.
As usual, the meeting opened with a recitation of the Flag Salute, followed by unanimous approval of the agenda for the evening. Since there were no presentations planned, Chairman Greg Woods opened the meeting to Public Comment On Agenda Items.
The Board’s choice to reprioritize the 20 Ranked Objectives in the District’s Strategic Plan was the focus of the commentors. Last reviewed and agreed-on in a multi-day workshop in Spring 2024 which included staff, parents, community members and the Board Members serving at that time, the Strategic Plan, “…provides clarity and inspiration to the Superintendent and staff in addressing the priorities of the Board and the community… The Objectives present the definition and priority of the services to be accomplished…”. Simply put, it helps the District decide what to spend its money on.
The reprioritization was unchanged from the first time it had been presented to the public at November’s meeting, when it had received much of the same criticism heard again this month. Several community members and parents spoke up with concerns regarding the Board’s changes.
Debra Wisniewski, a former therapist and retired educator, was the first to speak. She stated that holding Board meetings at 7p on a school night was not supportive of Family Engagement, which the Board newly ranked as priority #5. She also felt the Board’s choice to move Mental and Social Emotional Awareness from #4 to #19 was counteractive to Family Engagement, as she believes the two are directly linked. She closed by asking the Board to reconsider their reordering of the Ranked Objectives.
April Bailey spoke next. A home-schooling parent and known supporter and promoter of the four newest Board Members, she also had reservations with the Strategic Plan. However, contrary to the other commenters, she fully supports the reordering of Objectives. Rather, her issues were with the Vision and Mission Statements. She believes, “…the Strategic Plan should be the purpose of the school,” and that that purpose should be to educate the students. Mrs. Bailey stated that when she was in school she did not take any classes related to Social Emotional Learning. She does not feel they would have been helpful and “would have drawn more attention to the problems I had.”
Mrs. Bailey added that the wording of both the Vision and Mission Statements can be interpreted in different ways, and that it could potentially undermine the proposed changes to the Ranked Objectives in the Plan. She feels the Vision Statement (which reads, “A community committed to cultivating every student’s personal success”) is “an impossible task for a teacher to be able to achieve… You can’t be committed to every student’s personal success.” In regards to the Mission Statement, she is in favor of “Providing a safe and supportive environment,” but said that “the other stuff just complicates it” (referring to promoting social, emotional, and physical well-being).
Following Mrs. Bailey was Heidi Heidenreich, who retired after teaching for over 40 years and now volunteers in the K8’s SMART reading program. She was impressed by the Mission Statement but was troubled that the reorganized priorities are inconsistent in comparison. Mrs. Heidenreich said, “We know students can’t learn if they aren’t physically safe, and if they don’t feel emotionally safe.” She pointed out the Board has moved Physical Health from its previous spot of #5 down to #15 and Social Emotional Awareness dropped from #4 to #19, which contradicts the stated importance of these Objectives in the Mission Statement. As a former social studies teacher she was also greatly concerned that while the Mission Statement talks of dedication to “Developing curious, kind, creative, and confident critical thinkers”, critical thinking is not mentioned in the metrics {tasks} for History/Social Science. “This is a document that is not ready for prime time,” she critiqued. “I think you either need to take a look at your Mission Statement and change your priorities, or take a look at your priorities and change your Mission Statement. That, folks, is critical thinking.”
I was called up next, as a parent to kids in the K8, Middle and High Schools, a childcare provider, and a former NVSD Board Member. My comments and concerns reiterated the others, aside from Mrs. Bailey’s. I mentioned it is known, studied fact that children require good mental, social and emotional health to be able to properly absorb information. Brains full of stress or anxiety have a much harder time making new connections (aka learning), so being taught how to manage those emotions is a critical part of academic success. Children who bully and act out in undesirable ways or struggle in school frequently have challenges with their own mental health and social emotional skills. Nestucca, I pointed out, has a known issue with bullying, so moving those skills so far down on the list of priorities feels counterproductive to trying to get the problem under control as well.
Rachael Cardwell, another parent, approached the podium. While she also did not agree with the reorganization of the Objectives, her main concern was the fact that those changes undermine the collaborative work of the community members, staff, parents and former Board Members just last Spring. “The priorities presented here were created by just the Board, without that same breadth of input or representation from varying interests,” Ms. Cardwell said. “The newest Board Members campaigned on transparency and a commitment to listening to parents and students. Moving forward with this change doesn’t seem to reflect that promise.” She also reminded the Board that several meetings ago, they made a commitment to forming committees specifically to provide input to the Board for things like this, but those committees have not yet been established. “I strongly encourage you to table this document until committees are in place and able to offer the input that was promised to the community.”
Last to speak was Kim Cavatorta, who volunteered in the District’s art program for more than 20 years. She, too, was unhappy with the process used to change the Strategic Plan, saying, “…sometimes the process is just as important as the product.” Mrs. Cavatorta again reminded the Board of how the Plan had been created over several days and with community input. She recalls surveys for public suggestions on the 20 Ranking Objectives had been made available for at least two meetings prior to the Workshop in 2024, allowing even more input from families and community members. The newly proposed Strategic Plan was initially presented at the November meeting, she pointed out, and many people spoke out then about the same concerns brought up this time, yet it remains unchanged. “This does not feel like transparency to me, nor does it reflect a genuine desire to reach out to the community on a subject that is so important to our district.” She concluded by requesting the Board not vote on the reprioritized Plan until there is more input from and discussion by the staff and community.
Having reached the end of the list for comments on agenda items, Board Chairman Greg Woods moved on to the Action Items portion of the agenda. The Board started off by unanimously approving the minutes from the November 2025 meeting and the October 2025 Financial Report, both without any further discussion.
This finally brought the meeting to the item of contention for the evening: the Board’s vote to approve their Reprioritization of the District’s Strategic Plan. The listing on the agenda specifically indicated “with changes to page 5 of the document,” a change* from the initial agenda for this month’s meeting that was supposed to be held only two days prior. *See NOTE below.
“We’re here as to educate our kids,” Chairman Woods began, defending the reprioritization of Objectives. “We wanted the families involved. I think that’s part of a mental health thing, is to have your families involved. The more your child’s parents are involved… the better for the kid. I’ve heard some of you talk about the mental health thing… Just because it’s 20 does not mean its forgotten.”
“There’s a thousand things for [administration] to look at, regarding how often to wax the floor, to math and such things… Being in the top 20… if a kid needs help, I believe we have the people at the school that are trained, that are here,” he continued. “It isn’t like we’re going to fire every nurse or counselor in the school… My thought is any child that may need any kind of help, whether it’s math help or social help, this school is here, and I believe when talking with Ken and the other teachers I’ve talked to, this school is ready to help them. We’re not saying, ‘No, we’re not going to help those kids, that’s somebody else’s problem,’ … Whether because that topic is number 20, it isn’t last. There’s a thousand things for the school to monitor,” Woods finished, seeming to fail to recognize many of the 20 Objectives are generalized titles which combine to include ALL aspects of running the District, and are not just the top 20 of a larger list.
“Ken, what’s your opinion of this?” 20+ year Board veteran Director Boisa asked of Acting Superintendent Richwine. Richwine responded, “You guys went through the process… If there’s something that we need to spend new money on, we’re going to look at the top of the priorities. It’s kind of your guys’ call on the order of things, but every single thing on here is important.” He then jokingly added, “I don’t know that I could prioritize them other than winning the lottery so that we could actually have more of everything.”
After giving appreciation to Supt. Richwine for his thoughts, Director Boisa gave her own opinion on the matter. “I feel confident that the staff will continue to prioritize the mental and social and emotional health, so I feel that nothing is going to change… I can live with the Board’s decision, because I think it won’t make any difference.”
Director Kayla Cole spoke up. “Somebody said this was done in 2024. Did we redo it this year because there’s new board members, or.. since it was visited last year why was it revisited?” she asked. Supt. Richwine answered, explaining that every 4-5 years the District revisits the Strategic Plan with the community, and each year the Board can revisit the priorities. He said that because this is a primarily new Board, Fred [referring to Dr. Fred Van Vleck, Advisor for the National Center for Executive Leadership and School Board Development, who led the November 1st Board Workshop that addressed their Governance Handbook and Protocols as well as the Strategic Plan] recommended going through the whole process.
The fact that Director Cole herself didn’t know why the Board had made such drastic changes (More than what was even mentioned during this meeting. See the NOTE below.) was concerning to me. “How were you not aware of that? Were you not involved?” I questioned from my seat in the audience.
“I was involved,” Cole responded.
“In 2024,” Chairman Woods began, in an attempt to redirect, but I pressed on. “No, I mean the current Board now. You just stated you weren’t sure why-.”
Director Jason Hagan interrupted me, saying, “She wasn’t sure how often-”
Director Cole spoke over him. “I wasn’t sure why- Somebody said that they did it last year. I was wondering why we revisited it this year.”
“Yes, exactly. I’m curious why you don’t know that,” I said. Cole responded without actually answering and just gave a simple, “Ok.”
“No, no, no.” Chairman Woods’ were directed at me, clearly misunderstanding what was being asked. “Last year when you were on the Board in 2024, in the spring, is when that Board revisited this. And usually every year, that the Board, whether new, old, or whatever, you look at those priorities,” he continued on, explaining the timeline of events, which was not what my question was about. “She (referring to Cole) wasn’t on the Board then.”
“No, right now you guys just redid this reprioritization that you chose. How is she not aware of why you did that?” I asked a third time.
Chairman Woods spoke again. “Sorry, I thought your question was how often it was done.” “Yeah,” Director Cole chimed in, though that was not her initial question at all. Woods continued some more, explaining about when it was done, and with whom, eventually stating the reason why they did the reorganization was that former Supt. Misty Wharton had set up the November Workshop. The question of why Director Cole didn’t know why, during that workshop, the Board chose to reprioritize the Objectives was never clearly answered.
Moving on, Woods asked Director Diane if she was okay. “I’m not okay, but I can live with it,” she responded.
Director Hagan added his thoughts on the matter. “When we went through this – I believe all the tools are in place and have been for a while? Am I right? For the emotional, mental..” he questioned and then trailed off. “The school and the staff was already on high alert for that. I would say everybody had all the mandates covered… They were doing as well as they can, so I felt pretty comfortable not having to have that right there in front because there’s other things that I felt that needed more attention than what it was getting.”
Former NVSD school nurse and current parent Ahndrea Sousa spoke up from the audience. “They’re good for now, yes, we trust that. They’re good at their job. But they’re going to burn out quick if you don’t add more support and resources to support the kids. I’ve learned that from experience working there. It’s hard.”
“That’s not really what we’re-” Hagan started to reply but was cut off by Chairman Woods inviting another parent and former Board Member, Marty Wisehart, to speak.
“Last year when we did it,” Mr. Wisehart said, referring to the Spring 2024 revamp of the Strategic Plan, “That was the ‘every five year big do’ with the community. Just so you guys all know that. The big community involvement was last year, so it’s fairly current… And then every year you guys have the opportunity to look at it, you know, change stuff around at your discretion.”
“That’s what I was wondering, too,” remarked Director Hagan, though no question had been asked, and the information Mr. Wisehart had provided had already been mentioned several times throughout the meeting. “So every four or five years they do that.”
Chairman Woods tried to move the meeting forward. “Ok, um, I guess, do I have a motion to accept? Do you want to talk more on it at this point?”
“Aren’t we coming back to it?” Hagan asked Woods, sounding confused.
“No, that is the Governance ruling we’re going to come back to at a later point. This is the Strategic Plan,” Wood replied.
Asking a second time for a motion to approve the new version of the document, Chairman Woods again did not read aloud the full description of the Action Item from the agenda. He simply asked his fellow Board Members, “Do we have a motion to accept our Strategic Plan? Do you want to talk about it more?”
Despite having heard concerns and complaints from several parents, community members and experienced educators at both this and last month’s meetings, despite the apparent confusion from Director Cole about why they redid the document, and despite Director Hagan seeming to understand this was the document being discussed, Hagan himself immediately moved to approve it. Director Kayla Cole seconded the motion after what appeared to be a few moments of hesitation.
Director Boisa voted against the approval. The motion passed, with three of the four Members in attendance voting yes. Vice Chairwoman Sherry Hartford was not present.
NOTE: The changes to page 5, the Strategic Plan Overview, involve the deletion of the detailed purpose and process of the Plan, and were NOT presented or discussed at the November 18th meeting. The Board also did not hold a special public meeting between then and the originally planned date for this month of December 9th, or between the 9th and the rescheduled date of December 11th. This implies the Board met, discussed and/or made decisions on it outside of public meetings or workshops. Such actions are illegal in Oregon. None of these new changes were even mentioned, let alone addressed, at this meeting.
Next on the list was a Ratification of Employment, showing the resignations of High School Principal Emily Chadwick and long-time District Administrative Assistant Sarah Lewis. Woods questioned Supt. Richwine about the salaries listed, with Richwine responding that he believes benefits were in addition to the dollar amount on the paper. He also stated that finding new permanent replacements for the two positions is in process. The Ratification was approved unanimously.
The last Action Item to be addressed was an ask for a status change of the District’s old welding equipment, labeling it surplus so the already replaced items can be sold. Though no one present knew how the equipment sale process worked, it, too, was passed unanimously.
Administration Reports followed. Supt. Richwine gave shout-outs to the SMART Reading Program volunteers at the K8 and to HS Special Education teacher Amy Gianella for all the extra help she’s been providing in ensuring the department is in compliance. He also made mention to the middle school students (Carter, Parker and Ethan) and staff who have stepped up to help keep the K8 clean while custodial staff were out sick, and K8 teacher Aaron Blume, who applied for and was awarded a grant in the amount of $1000 for literacy items. Richwine recognized the “9th Grade On Track” student leaders, Micah R. and Noe L. for their continued excellent representation of the District and the NGS (Ninth Grade Success, I think?) team. He stated that winter sports are going strong, but due to the bus driver shortage the MS wresting team was unable to compete in an event. (Reach out to the District Office if you’re interested in applying as a driver!)
Next, Supt. Richwine congratulated the K8’s freshly elected student council members: President April R., VP Peter L., Co-Treasurers Maddox O. and Dominic H., Event Planner Sophia W., and Communications Officers Kalepo K., Valjon E., and Jessica L. He also reported that the K8 food drive was successful, with six large boxes collected for both the Hebo and Pacific City pantries.
Seven people have been selected for the Advisory Committee, Richwine announced next. Their first meeting will be in January.
Supt. Richwine then spoke about the 2024-2025 Integrated Program Report. One of the things going well in the District, the report shows, is the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Testing. Staff training for is complete, students are getting comfortable using it, and it is now implemented into the annual schedule. The District still struggles with attendance issues, specifically chronic absenteeism, as does much of the state for the past several years.
Last on the Agenda was another round of Public Comments, this time for items NOT on the Agenda. One of the people to speak was retired Nestucca teacher Nancy Whitehead. She wanted to share some good news with the community: “The Tillamook County Commissioners had {met the prior evening and} signed a Letter of Intent to place a branch of the Tillamook County Library in the old Beaver school!” That wasn’t the only good news for the tiny community. “The school building is being renovated and a total of 30 apartments made from it and an added building.” Mrs. Whitehead wasn’t done yet, adding, “The developers are hoping to keep the gym for community use, and install the library branch in that building.” She made sure to mention the addition of a library branch will not cost taxpayers any money beyond the current library levy.
For the sake of the length of this already-lengthy article, the remaining Public Comments for items not on the agenda will be written about separately.
After the final round of Public Comments, Chairman Woods adjourned the meeting at 7:55pm. NVSD’s next meeting will be Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 7pm.