Board votes 3-2 to let his contract expire in 2010 as now scheduled

LEBANON - Lebanon School Board members voted 3-2 Monday not to renew the contract for Superintendent Jim Robinson past its current expiration date of June 30, 2010.

Rick Alexander made the motion, seconded by Vice Chairman Josh Wineteer. Debi Shimmin joined the two in voting for the motion, while Chairwoman Sherrie Sprenger and board member Chris Fisher voted no.

Robinson said he was "troubled by the process and disappointed by the outcome." However, he said, "I will continue to perform in good faith to the terms of the contract until it expires."

Robinson's contract was last renewed in June 2007 for three years at a base salary of $117,450.

Also Monday, the board voted 3-2 to accept an evaluation of Robinson. That evaluation, which graded Robinson on a scale of 1 to 5, marked him as "needs improvement" on four of nine standards and "good" on the rest. Scores were straight averages of grades from individual board members.

The four standards receiving the second-to-lowest score possible were communications and community relations, labor relations, values and ethics of leadership and human resources management. Robinson received "good" ratings, one step up, for instructional leadership, curriculum planning and development, organizational management and policy and governance.

Board members also gave themselves low scores on a separate board evaluation, saying the board needs improvement in, among other areas, goal setting, community relations, performance at public meetings and relationship with the superintendent.

Fisher criticized Robinson's evaluation, saying it shouldn't be possible to rate Robinson so low when he'd had exemplary evaluations as recently as last year.

He called Robinson "a man of vision" and commended his efforts to raise achievement in Lebanon through programs such as "Beyond LHS," a college-credit opportunity.

But Wineteer and Shimmin said they felt compelled to act on community anger over some of Robinson's policies and procedures over his entire tenure, not just in the past year.

"He's a lightning rod," Wineteer said. "What we need is some healing in this district, not a lightning rod."

"I feel like I speak for the community," Shimmin said, drawing several growls of "No!" from a section of the audience.

"I want to create a positive culture," Shimmin continued, "and I just don't think it exists right now."

Alexander and Wineteer have been longtime critics of Robinson. Shimmin joined the two last August in voting to place the superintendent on administrative leave pending a full-scale district review. That decision was rescinded seven weeks later after board members consulted with the district's attorney.

Board to change review process

LEBANON - Citing budget concerns, the Lebanon School Board will pursue training for setting district goals rather than the full-scale independent review some had requested.

Board members in January had narrowed down a list of topics for review, including a communication audit, an audit of the district's teacher recruitment and retention situation and the goal-setting session.

Chairwoman Sherrie Sprenger brought cost estimates to Monday's board meeting: approximately $22,000 for all three efforts to proceed.

Board members voted 4-1, with Chris Fisher dissenting, to pursue only the goal-setting session with the Oregon School Boards Association at an estimated cost of $1,000.

Fisher said he thought the board should wait until the next budget is finalized before making any review spending decisions.