If we are going to buy Robinson out, I hope it's more a severance package that is significantly less costly than three years of his salary plus benefits. I would prefer Robinson just resign, knowing it is time to give someone else a chance to lead educational efforts in this community. But a buy-out may be our only option.
When we have a new superintendent who brings in fresh air from outside the Lebanon system, we can slowly begin the process of healing and coming together. I am hopeful a new superintendent would facilitate multiple public forums in multiple locations around the district, to gather community ideas and opinions about how to better communicate with parents and unite us behind the goal of better educating our youth. This person would host similar gathering for district teachers. This would be a start.
There is much history of intense, bitter disagreement about what is best for Lebanon's schools, and of disrespect between the factions. I am hoping for someone with the skills and patience to allow us all to grieve our losses with respect and compassion, and fall into line behind a common goal of improving education for Lebanon.
This is no easy or quick task. It will take a talented superintendent at the helm with a track record of success elsewhere, and a lot of patience.
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You are dreaming if you think Robinson is going to accept a buyout. Alexander will be gone long before Robinson.
Maybe when the recall election starts the local press can question Alexander why he refuses to pay his property taxes (which support schools) and his criminal convictions.
I hate to say it, but the buyout idea is completely ridiculous. You will have two years with no leadership at all, it will cost half a million dollars (IF Robinson doesn't sue), and you will probably get someone who inherits the social/ cultural problems that have caused all the issues that you (erroneously) blame on Robinson. This new person will (I would bet a lot of money) follow the same arc as Robinson, with bloggers like you complaining in another 5 years "If only we could get a new superintendent, one who is fresh and new, all would be well."
It reminds me of people who divorce and remarry over and over, and keep hoping (foolishly) that the next spouse will solve the problems, rather than seeking in their heart and fixing the problems inside.
Sorry to vent. Josh Wineteer is a bright guy, though a little hot headed (and the Sand Ridge Contract thing is just plain embarrassing); he will even make a decent chair once he gets used to it. But Rick Alexander is both evil and foolish, and to take his idiotic plans seriously is a recipe for disaster.
"If only we could get a new superintendent, one who is fresh and new, all would be well."
You have apparently not really read a thing I've written. I do not believe all will be well with a new superintendent. There will still be months if not several years of squabbling after Robinson goes. If he stays, there will years and years and years more.
ie: thanks for printing my critical comment. Although we disagree, it is the fair thing to do, and such behavior is my hope for Lebanon. So once again, my appreciative thoughts.
However, I still think that Robinson is not the problem, but that structural forces within Lebanon are the problem. By focusing on the superintendent, you miss the point and set yourself up for the same pattern with the next guy or gal. Has there ever been a superintendent who had a consensus of approval for any length of time? Honeymoons don't count :)
A seething tension between haves and have-nots would be my first candidate for an important "structural force", but I think it is way more complex than that and don't have an answer I can be confident of. I also think training in the protocols of being middle class is a mark that automatically puts a person in one camp or the other.
Also... you should really distance yourself from Alexander and any of his "causes". What a train wreck! Wineteer is a bright guy who means well, but Alexander is an embarrassment. At least he could figure out how to follow an agenda instead of (regularly) making a fool of himself. Josh should have ruled him out of order, actually. If he wants a discussion, put it on the damn agenda like a grown up!
IE here (google/blogger and I are having an issue) --
I agree that Robinson is not the only problem in our district. However, his style had generated so much negativity, and seems to me to be more a conquering vs. collaborative approach that more harmful than helpful, that I believe he needs to get out of the way so this community can begin to get at the core problems.
I am not sure what the core problems are...certainly poverty is an issue. Drug use is an issue. Lack of health care is an issue. Most small towns in rural America have these issues.
It IS complex and there seems to be a deep history of conflict in this district. Maybe that's how it is in many small towns, I don't know.
I am looking forward to Samaritan Health Services and the new medical training center that is planned. I don't think the people it brings with it will tolerate our current inadequate system of serving the urgent-care needs in this community (thus they will improve), nor the educational situation in this district (including Robinson's disrespectful style with members of the community).
It is, however, possible these folks will opt out of public schools here..sending their children elsewhere for an education, as many do who care deeply about the quality of education their children receive.
I don't see the tension between haves and have nots as a core problem, but it might well be. Robinson disses the "haves" as well.
I feel like a Johnny-one-note here, but I think one major issue is administrators respecting the views of others even when they disagree...Sincerely respecting that people may disagree with them without be "stupid" or worthy of being dissed either verbally or with body language.
There is an arrogance about our current administrative office that is unwarranted and damaging to this community.
There will NEVER be total agreement in a community on anything, that is a given. But if we have educational leaders who support teachers as they struggle in their difficult jobs, and honor parental/community concerns (whether the parent gets their way OR NOT), and student concerns, and at least consider what they are hearing with an open mind...then things can get better.
I agree that it doesn't make sense to just get divorced and remarried every time there are struggles...but when the spouse is emotionally abusive it is unlikely they will change. Then it DOES make sense to get divorced, and spend time reflecting on how you ended up in that marriage in the first place, and hopefully planning to avoid a re-run.
I am not embarrassed by Alexander. And I agree that Wineteer is a bright guy.
It is a discouraging situation. My hat is off to anyone who is willing to wade in and join the school board. It is a snake pit, and must in some way, as you imply, reflect this community itself. And that community..is us..all of us.
Sorry for the long ramble in response. I do appreciate disagreeing opinions, as long as they aren't hateful...and yours did not fall in that category. Actually, thank goodness I've only had a few comments here that were hateful, and that speaks well for us, given the strong feelings around educational issues in Lebanon.
I am the anonymous from 4:40pm, fyi.
Respectfully, no matter how much you may dislike Robinson, changing superintendents doesn't seem to have had much success in the past, and I bet it won't in the future. I realize you really don't like him, but do you really think the next guy will be better? For what reason, given that none of the other recent superindentents have succeeded?
Also, could you give an example of Robinson's "disrepectful style"? Even if it is just something he said to you or someone you know. Body language is a start, but I don't see that in the meetings (which doesn't mean it doesn't happen outside -- I am neither a teacher nor a parent)
I would say that if everyone learned to be polite and refrain from ad-hominem attacks (which make it impossible to think straight and cooperate on specific solutions), that might solve about 75% of the problems...
As for Alexander, do you think he behaves appropriately in meetings? He seems completely off base, unable to follow the agenda, unprepared, malicious, and kind of slow in the head. What do you see in him?
Josh, whom I disagree with most of the time, is none of those things in my opinion, so it isn't a question of which side Alexander is on.
Sorry, that is a ramble... but you rambled too....
Oh -- one more thing. It would be interesting to chart the interactions between the office and the community. Perhaps we could start to try to figure out why they might get impatient at the DO, and why parents might get angry. To be honest, there are a lot of messed up parents in Lebanon (poverty and drugs have a lot to do with this), and they might also spoil it for the many great parents in town.
Also, style might be an issue: DO folks all went to college and might read a certain "countrified", working-class, and religious style as implying a bad or stupid person, when such folk are generally great family-oriented/ hardworking/ intelligent (though usually not bookish)/ patriotic people who just act and speak differently then the DO folks. Once this mismatch has started, everyone starts to get angry at each other and the situation snowballs (especially because even the most moral working class country folks are generally very ready for a fight, god bless them).
More rambling. I mean it in good faith, at least.
Nothing wrong with rambling in my book;>).
Robinson has said to someone I know, who was working to discuss an issue with him,"You are stupid." This person took this, anyway, to mean more than just "you are wrong about this issue." This is the first example that comes to mind.
Many teachers and administrators, if they trust you, will say they are afraid to cross him and/or quietly say, "it is time for him to go." Most I've crossed paths with, as the mother of two students in this district, will just not answer when asked how they feel about the superintendent..or will smile and say something that says nothing, like..."well..it IS intreresting," or shake their heads "no." Hard to know exactly what that means, but it's clearly not positive.
Then there was 80+% no-confidence-in-him vote teachers gave him several years ago.
But I do agree that the problems with DO relationships in this community are deeper than Robinson. Did the former Superintendents generate this much animosity? I don't recall that they did...not THIS much. Buy those days were before my kids were in school so I was attending solely as a taxpayer. You're certainly right in that Lebanon schools have never had high academic ratings, as far as I know...would like to be corrected on that.
I love this community, despite it's issues. Once as an undergrad I participated in a study for a class project where two people stood in front of a retail store and just said, "Hello." to people walking in and out. There were two trials at each store -- the variable that changed between trials was that one week the two people were dressed professionally, and another week they were dressed very, very casually. The students conducting this research at the stores in Albany and Corvallis had the hypothesis confirmed -- that people responded more positively to people dressed well. The two of us in Lebanon had confounding results -- people viewed us suspiciously when we were dressed professionally, and were quite friendly when we were dressed like we'd just come to the store after working in the yard.
If your car is going to break down or slide off a road, there is not a better place for this to happen than Lebanon or Sweet Home: People will almost fight with each other over who gets to help you.
There are professional, educated people who appreciate the value of a country rural style. You are right about so many local people having a family focus and putting energy into getting the best they can for their children, even if they themselves are not too formally educated. I do know that there are people here with a drug lifestyle, which of course does not support doing what's best for kids, but that is not the majority of us.
If a rural country style is what we have here, it will work best to respect and work with it, vs. taking an attitude of smug superiority.
You know, Sweet Home has a similar demographic population to Lebanon. I understand their schools perform somewhat better, in some cases, quite a bit better, than schools in Lebanon.
What is their superintendent like? Surely we don't regularly read about him in the paper as a source of controversy. It would be interesting to know.
The thing about dressing better making people more suspicious in Lebanon is great!
If we are going to ask about Sweet Home, we need to ask about the whole situation (school board behavior, etc), not just the superitendent. Just to be fair, though it might be all him. (I think Alexander is as bad as Robinson for the community, though on the different end of the spectrum).
I tend to think that in sweet home there is no clash of country versus city -- there is no city people really, I bet (?? not sure). There are a lot of city people in Lebanon, actually.
THis is a nice conversation, I want to mention. Even though I actually think Robinson is just fine....
Yes..it is good to have conversation that is respectful despite disagreements.
Do you know Robinson personally? I do know Rick personally, thought see him rarely, and that no-doubt informs my perception of him as a board member. I don't think that's bad, by the way, because it gives one a broader base on which to base an opinion.
I don't personally know Robinson. Given the mountain of negatives I've heard, I doubt we would like each other. And one doesn't need to like someone to respect them and be able to get behind their leadership, I might add. I don't expect to personally like a superintendent. You might not like Rick if you knew him personally.
Alexander is not slow in the head....he thinks, then speaks, then thinks again. He is very mechanically oriented and I have heard is pretty brilliant in that domain. He has also done major construction projects and may even be a general contractor though I'm not sure on that. In some ways he might seem like a fish out of water in his role as school board member. But frankly, I like his style.
He is a very generous and good-hearted soul, who continues to help out a good number of people in this community outside of school board work.
You may not like his decisions, but he is NOT evil and he DOES care about kids and their education.
And I have actually attended several school board meetings this year. I don't advertise that, or report here on the meetings, because it important to be anonymous just in case there would be negative fallout on my kids, should I ever need to request special needs services or anything for my kids, that involved the district office. I don't expect that, but one never knows. And there are not all that many people at most board meetings.
Rick was actually pretty quiet in the meetings I attended, though he did speak and ask questions... nothing warranting what other bloggers report, but then how much someone dislikes him in advance may be a factor. Did you dislike him before you wondered if he was mentally slow?
He IS someone who has no trouble with the "question authority" piece, and I think seriously questions whether things really have to be done as they always have been RE board operations. He doesn't have much respect for the district's attorney, and frankly, neither to I. Rick is very good friends with three attorneys that I know of, so at least some well-educated people must not find him slow mentally. He IS different from Robinson though, clearly, except they are both people I suspect who won't back down. Maybe that is a part of the problem.
Here's to respectful debate!
Yeah, I have met Robinson a few times, but not with any depth; he is a fine guy to me in person. I bet if I met Rick at a BBQ, I would get along great with him, and dare I say the same might go for you and Robinson. One of the things about Robinson is that he *doesn't* show his face much in the community, and I do think that is bad, but he may have his reasons.
Alexander behaves badly in meetings, straight up. It might just be a style thing (city vs country) that doesn't reflect on him deeply as a person, but he goes out of order on the agenda and asks stupid questions and doesn't read his packet ahead of time and has some silly ideas like a buyout. Generally, he strikes me as VERY unprofessional (perhaps just a style thing,... but....) I think the fact that he despises protocol wins him friends among the working people in town (like 60% of the total), but I think it is bad for the district. I am also suspicious of *possible* conflict of interests in terms of real estate and the last bond measure.
IE,
The rest of us don't know anything about Rick Alexander because he refuses to answer questions from the press about his background and views during elections.
We do know he owes $14,000 in back property taxes and has a criminal record.
To anonymous who says Alexander "refuses" to pay property taxes and has criminal convictions:
Get out of the gutter. Use your name when you make ugly accusations.
You're not afraid of paying damages for not doing your homework, are you?
Someone as cocksure and vicious as you doesn't have doubts.
With regard to property taxes, if Alexander owes property taxes,he's accruing interest, which he'll have to pay or the county will take his property.
If the issue is financial, let's check everyone's credit scores, let's apply that standard to everyone -- even slimeballs like you.
Give us your name so we can check your property taxes, see if you've been sued by creditors, filed bankruptcy.
We can have a private investigator get your credit score, find out your sexual orientation, see if you have any professional licenses, find out whether anyone's ever reported you for ethical violations or sued you for malpractice, find out your employer.
What garbage. A good fit with Robinson.
IE, I'm surprised you approved the comment from 10:06 PM - it's full of personal attacks.
"Cocksure." "Vicious." "Slimeball." "Garbage."
Wow. Sounds like something you would normally deplore - but in this case, the attacks are ultimately pro-Robinson, so I guess that makes it OK.
In fact, I'd be a little surprised if you printed this comment.
Also, for the record, the Linn County website shows Mr. Alexander with a property tax bill of about $176, which is nothing.
Check for yourself. After all, it's public information.
To anon July 11 3:59 p.m. -- It may be Lebanon has more "city" people than Sweet Home, since more people may be inclined to live here and commute to jobs in larger cities than may want to commute from Sweet Home.
Protocol is an interesting concept to discuss: I"m not sure working class people as a group are more likely to abandon protocol than white-collar folks, especially white collar folks at the top. I certainly have known a good number of working class people who are strictly-by-the-book people, even when it seems to me it makes more sense to think outside the box.
The whisper campaign about Rick objecting to the siting of Riverview School because he wanted the district to buy some of his personal land as a site instead, is completely untrue to my knowledge. I don't believe Rick owns land anywhere close to that area. He has a home on land in rural East Linn County, and a shop site on Hwy 20, and a recently-sold old mill site also on Hwy 20 -- both are a long way from the Riverview area.
He objected to the Riverview location because it is in a flood plain.
People who continue to allude to some sort of shady business deal that fell through for Rick, regarding the placement of Riverview, are just spreading gossip in hopes of building more support for their "side." It's notot about reconciliation at all.
We now apparently see that it's NOT true that Rick owes $14,000 in back taxes (thank you, Dennis, for that). Did he ever? I don't know...but the angry anon has a point that unpaid taxes accrue interest, so the county will either get its money (and then some) or sell the property and then get its money.
No...I don't think it's good to not pay one's property taxes, but it's not a horrific crime to fall behind.
Years ago I gathered signatures to help establish the pool district, and was amazed at how many people told me they would love to sign the petition, but could not because they had a felony record. Now I don't know what type of record these folks had, but what I can say is these were men who came into a school with their children for parent-teacher conference/open house events.
When I am in my favorite grocery store, it is not uncommon to hear one shopper tell another shopper (I am not making this up..I have heard this at least 3 times in the last 6 months) -- "HEY! Your PO (parole officer) came by looking for you today! You better call her!"
The reality is that Lebanon is a diverse community in terms of economic and social class. It may be there is a higher-than-average number of residents who have contact with the criminal justice system, but whether it does or doesn't, we all get to work within the cultures that exist here.
Is it helpful to assume that the parent who comes to a parent/teacher conference and has some criminal record (may have been a minor offense, or quite a major one) is a hardened criminal? If one has committed a crime like trespassing to retrieve one's own stolen property, is that a major issue that we hold against the person forever? If someone had a drug problem and went to prison, but does not use drugs now do we label them a criminal forever? If someone has a DUI from 20 years ago but quit drinking years ago, are they still a drunk driver? If someone went to prison for writing a bad check, are they always a bad credit risk?
Now if someone has killed someone, or committed a crime against a child, I see it differently. But it's easy to see things in too all-or-nothing, black-and-white terms, and that gets us only more hate and division.
If you go to the link Dennis put up and scroll down to R271094, Richard Alexander, you will find it says he owes $10,634.16 which is apparently 3 years worth as the annual taxes are $2,913.52.
According to IE he has recently sold that piece of property so the matter should be cleared up shortly. End of story.
IE, I assume you are referring to Rick's "criminal" violation in your comment, "If one has committed a crime like trespassing to retrieve one's own stolen property, is that a major issue that we hold against the person forever?"
If so, it shows he has a history of taking the law into his own hands and doing things his way even if the law says his way is wrong. Am I right?
You may have your own reasons for wanting Jim gone but tell me honestly, is the fact that you didn't like the location of a new school that was built 7 years ago a good reason to remove a superintendent? Is that intelligent?
Is it the right thing for the high school kids to have less principals in their school so Rick can come up with the money to buy Jim out? I'm not making this up. These are quotes from him in the paper the last two weeks.
The academies at the high school are largely responsible for reducing the dropout rate to half what it was when they were started. He wants to dismantle them and hasn't said why. Is that logical?
To me it's not about board behavior or not paying his taxes or using my taxes to pay off his agenda or even if he does or doesn't like the superintendent.
It's about his poor decisions on education. It's about the children.
I did not click on the link Dennis sent, and still haven't as I don't care personally whether Rick owes back taxes, as the county will the money with interest eventually as that's how the system is set up and it's as it should be.
Rick does not want to get rid of Robinson based on any one issue, as far as I know, but for a pattern of poor behavior and poor decisions.
It's been stated over and over why people in this district, generally, object to the academy model. The core issue for me is that there was never the money to fully fund a wide range of academic options for four full academies. Small schools are great, when there is the money to offer depth and breadth in each school. There never was with the Gates grant. Maybe it was poor district choices about how to spend the money, I don't know.
And I DO believe, in some cases, one needs to take the law into one's own hands. If there is an accident ahead and a red light is stopping you from moving towards it, and no one is coming at the cross street, do you mindlessly sit at the red light, or do you run it and help those at the accident? I mean really.
Is it GENERALLY a good idea to take the law into one's own hands? No.
Thinking people think through what's most moral or ethical in individual situations, and there ARE exceptions. And people DO make mistakes. And people WILL make choices I wouldn't myself have made. That doesn't cause me to label them criminals. That's a pretty heavy charge to lay on someone.
And personally, I think a school as large as LHS likely needs at least 3 administrators.
But basically, I see the high school as abdicating lots of it's responsibility to teach and leaning on LBCC. Maybe this is the wave of the present and future for many cash-strapped high schools, I don't know. Maybe there is no other way. I find it all very sad.
Dennis,
You are incorrect about Rick's taxes. He is listed as both Rick and Richard Alexander. On the Rickard account his blanace is over $12,000.
Actually for an extant emergency you can violate minor laws, legally. Going on someone else's property to retrieve property is not an emergency. Taking the law into your own hands in non-life threatening situations is not good behavior in any instance. It shows a selfish, my way or none attitude that is not good for a school board. Ideally, the people on the school board would be cooperative in nature. Clearly not what we presently have in Lebanon.
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