School report draws response The Eugene School Board should reinforce its respect for doing business openly, Chairman Jim Torrey says By Josephine Woolington The Register-Guard APRIL 30, 2015

School report draws response

The Eugene School Board should reinforce its respect for doing business openly, Chairman Jim Torrey says

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By Josephine Woolington

The Register-Guard

APRIL 30, 2015

Eugene School Board Chairman Jim Torrey said in a statement Wednesday that “now it is time to move forward” and use the revelation of board members’ secret efforts to negotiate an exit plan with Superintendent Sheldon Berman as an “opportunity to reinforce our respect for consistently open and candid board discussions of school district business.”

Torrey’s statement does not specifically defend or repudiate board members’ efforts to shield their concerns about Berman’s job performance, or address newly released emails’ suggestion that some board members may have violated Oregon’s public record and public meetings laws.

The unredacted emails, inadvertently released to The Register-Guard, show that board members negotiated a settlement plan that would allow Berman to avoid a negative job performance review, which one board member said could have led to his firing.

The emails further reveal that some board members avoided meeting publicly or even in closed-door sessions to talk about Berman. Instead, they communicated with each other on private email accounts, text messages and over the phone.

Board member Beth Gerot said she planned to shred any documents she had regarding Berman’s performance evaluation. State public records law prohibits elected officials from destroying public documents.

“As experienced public officials, we have a deep and abiding respect for Oregon’s public records and public meetings laws,” Torrey said in his statement. “The school district’s disagreement with The Register-Guard on disclosure of a limited number of records was on its way to a proposed settlement when documents at issue were mistakenly sent to the newspaper’s legal counsel by the district’s lawyer. Mistakes happen.”

Berman, meanwhile, said in a statement of his own, also released Wednesday, that he is concerned that the newspaper article may damage the community’s perspective on “the district and the board, as well as me personally.”

“The emails were sent during a time that was particularly challenging for the district, the board and me,” Berman said in his emailed statement. “The year since has been a much more positive and productive time. I think it’s fair to say that the quoted emails and the article don’t begin to describe or reflect the many accomplishments we have achieved.”

Berman added that he has “worked diligently to address concerns raised in my discussions with board members last year.”

“My reasons for leaving Eugene remain largely personal and family ones,” Berman said.

Gustavo Balderas, who will succeed Berman in July, declined to comment Wednesday.

Eugene Education Association teachers union President Tad Shannon said teachers feel that the board’s responsiveness to teacher concerns has improved in the past year, but teachers did not notice a change in Berman’s performance.

“Shelley (Berman) actually thinks he’s a collaborator and a listener,” Shannon said. “Unfortunately, most staff don’t see it that way.”

Shannon didn’t comment specifically on the board’s decision to try to hide its negotiations with Berman.

“Ultimately, the result was something that the staff agrees with,” Shannon said of Berman leaving at the end of this school year.

“There was frustration regarding the time it took for teachers to feel listened to and for the board to take action,” said Shannon, adding that he didn’t want to “second-guess the board.”

$21,246 in district legal fees 

The school district earlier this year sued The Register-Guard to avoid disclosing 12 pages of records that the Lane County District Attorney’s Office ordered the district to release. Last week, the Harrang Long Gary Rudnick P.C. law firm sent the newspaper unredacted copies of emails that the newspaper requested last year, including those that were at issue in the lawsuit.

Torrey on Wednesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the status of the lawsuit.

The newspaper’s general counsel, Wendy Baker, said the lawsuit is moot. She said the next step should be a stipulated judgment of dismissal of the lawsuit.

As of last month, the district had spent $21,246 in legal fees to Harrang Long regarding the newspaper’s records request and the district’s subsequent lawsuit against the paper.

In his statement Wednesday, Berman said he was asked to “implement significant changes and improve student performance while implementing dramatic budget reductions and bringing consistency and coherence to a largely site-based system” when he came to Eugene in 2011.

“These changes were not easy, nor were they always popular,” Berman said. “However, I believe that they are serving students well and will continue to do so in the long term.”

Berman also referenced a letter written by Torrey and presented at a school board retreat earlier this month. In the letter, Torrey thanked Berman for his work in the district, particularly for his efforts to improve the district’s instruction, communication, graduation rates and passage of a 2013 bond measure.

“Shelley has brought great strengths and insights to this district,” Torrey said. “His leadership has been invaluable in a challenging time and in this transition year.”

In its negotiations with Berman about his departure, the school board was advised by an attorney to provide a letter of reference highlighting Berman’s positive contributions to the district, email records indicate.

Roscoe Caron, a retired Eugene middle school teacher and now an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon, has been critical for several years of what he describes as the centralization of the district under Berman’s tenure.

Caron said Wednesday that he believes the school board erred in hiring Berman. He criticized board members for not terminating him. 

“The secret negotiations for an exit plan were not designed to shield Berman,” Caron said. “They were designed to shield the board from having to account for their initial hiring decision and for the litany of unpopular decisions and attitudes that followed.”

Follow Josephine on Twitter @j_woolington . Email josephine.woolington@registerguard.com .