OPINION: Former school board members set the district on perilous path

There should be a way to challenge a majority vote.

It would have come in really handy to stop Dave Brown, Brian Shannon, Renee Powell, Raquel Peregrino de Brito and Trevor DeHart from crippling the Newberg school district.

It has been widely speculated as to why these five hired a man with an extremely shady work history as superintendent of Newberg schools.

Some say they hired Stephen Phillips to be a “yes” man to the traditional values they publicly touted. Some say it was a “sabotage hire,” designed to lead Newberg school district to its downfall — possibly to get rid of the “immoral” Newberg school district altogether.

Either way, in 2021, superintendent Joe Morelock was fired, and in 2022, Stephen was hired. While Joe had a glowing record of successfully balancing the school budget, Stephen — at the very time the five interviewed him — was the subject of a highly publicized ongoing investigation as superintendent of the 175-student Jewel School District. Even before the investigation, in 2018, Stephen was forced to resign as deputy superintendent of Beaverton School District for reposting an outrageously false media message.

There was nothing we could do after this disastrous hire but stand by and hope for the best.

Sadly, the worst has happened. Under Stephen’s watch, the school district budget now has a crippling deficit of at least $4 million. And recently, Stephen was named in a federal lawsuit. The lawsuit claims Stephen and two other administrators in the Jewell School District failed to properly protect a then-14-year-old student in that district from a predatory teacher who has since been imprisoned.

There should have been a way to challenge the majority vote when Joe was fired. There should have been a way to challenge the majority vote when the man who clearly had made a mess in his past jobs was hired.

Whenever there is danger in a public building, citizens are encouraged to rush to the nearest “In case of emergency, break glass” station. If people elected to serve the public are clearly not serving the public — if they are clearly serving their own interests — citizens should have an emergency option.

There should be a way to challenge a majority vote.