School District Cancels Board Meeting Amid Calls To Discipline Administrators

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Annie Ellison, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Amid a mounting union dispute and calls for top officials to be put on administrative leave, the Multnomah Education Service District (MESD) canceled its monthly board meeting hours before it was scheduled to take place.

GoLocalPDX first reported Oregon's 2014 Teacher of the Year, Brett Bigham, was threatened with discipline after filing two complaints against senior staff at the district. Further emails revealed the district attempted to ransom Bigham's trip to an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. in exchange for dropping the Bureau of Labor and Industris (BOLI) and Teachers Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) complaints he filed in 2014.

"I believe the district cancelled the meeting to avoid hearing my charges," said Bigham. "I have been writing the board since October asking them to look into illegal activity and they have not responded once."

Bigham and over a hundered others are calling for MESD Superintendent Barbara Jorgensen and other top administrators to be put on leave for what Bigham alleges is discrimination and harassment based on his sexuality. A BOLI complaint alleging harassment and retaliation is still under investigation.

The education service district offers programs for disabled and medically at-risk students, as well as students who have been involved with corrections and several alternative schools.

'Elimination of agenda items'

The board meeting's snap cancellation comes when up to 100 MESD workers were expected at the meeting during a drawn-out bargaining process between the district and the Oregon Education Association, the union representing MESD teachers, nurses and support staff. MESD workers have been without a contract for 7 1/2 months.

Tuesday morning, MESD Executive Assistant and Board Secretary Heather Severns informed staff via email the meeting was cancelled due to the "elimination of agenda items." The executive session, which is not open to the public, was also cancelled.

Despite a cited lack of agenda, several union members were expected to speak, and Bigham planned to read charges against Jorgensen, HR Director Heyke Nickerson, and others.

“They are mediating our contract and the nurses' contract, it's hard to believe there were no agenda items,” Bigham said. “Chickens.”

A petition started a week ago by the group Comunity Supporting Teachers on the online platform change.org, addressed to School Board Members Fransisco Acosta Jr., Bernie Giusto, Gary Hollands, Nels Johnson, Douglas Montgomery, Kevin Spellman, calls for Jorgensen to be disciplined, and for the alleged harassment against Bigham to stop:

Discipline Superintendent Barbara Jorgensen, and associated Administrators for bullying and harassment. Conduct an investigation, and direct administrators to allow Oregon's 2014 NEA Teacher of the Year and OEA's 2015 Teacher of the Year, Brett Bigham, to fulfill his duties as they promised with NO further harassment

As of Tuesday night, the petition had garnered 135 of 200 signatures.

Three other MESD staff members have filed BOLI complaints against the district since 2009, one the former district superintendent Ronald Hitchcock. That complaint was withdrawn, as was another complaint alleging discrimination. However, a complaint filed by nurse consulant Kathleen Mahaffy Dietrich in Jan. 2015 for discrimination, as well as Bigham's are still open.

MESD did not respond to a media request regarding the cancelled meeting agenda.

Related Slideshow: Top 100 Oregon High Schools

GoLocalPDX has ranked high schools across the state based on a method developed at Babson College, Mass. See below for the top 100 schools in the Beaver State.

School District Cancels Board Meeting Amid Calls To Discipline Administrators

Related Slideshow: Top 100 Oregon High Schools

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