The policy changes have received a lot of attention, taking the focus off the district’s considerable financial issues, including the sweetheart deal the superintendent and deputy superintendent received in their contracts. Training our focus solely on the policy change is a classic red herring.

A Comparison of Contracts In the waning months of the previous Newberg School District’s Board of Directors’s tenure, the directors pushed through policy changes (a Parents’ Bill of Rights) and new contracts. Neither of these actions were transparent: all of it was done without stakeholder input, much less their knowledge.

red herring   noun: something intended to distract attention from the real problem  

To understand the basis of our deep concern about finances and the contracts, and to know why we are sounding the alarm, it is important to understand the history of the district’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” It is also important to understand both the unusualness of the current superintendent’s contract and the Superintendent’s history of financial dealings.

In the coming weeks, we will be taking a close look at the history of the Parents’ Bill of Rights, the making of the current superintendent and deputy superintendent contracts, and some relevant history about Dr. Phillips.   For now, we are publishing a comparison of Dr. Phillips’ first contract with the new one passed in June without discussion by the board, which had weeks earlier been voted out of office. We believe this is important information for the public to have.  

Please, take a look yourself and see what you think of Dr. Phillips’ contract.