Newberg School Board members appear to be holding their seats

The Newberg school board made national news last year when it voted to ban Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ pride flags and other symbols it defined as “political” from being displayed at district schools. The policy was driven by a block of four conservative members of the board, led by Dave Brown and Brian Shannon. The majority also voted to fire its superintendent Joe Morelock without cause. Voters cast their ballots in a special recall election of Brown and Shannon — who appear to have kept their seats — though final results are not expected for a few weeks. OPB education reporter Elizabeth Miller joins us to share details of the election results and what happens next.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The Newberg School Board made national news over the last year after it voted to ban the display of ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs, ‘Pride’ flags and other symbols defined as ‘political’ from district schools. The policy was driven by a block of four conservative members of the Board led by Chair Dave Brown and Vice Chair Brian Shannon. That policy along with the firing of the superintendent led to a recall election. Ballots were due yesterday and although some ballots have not yet been counted, it does appear that the recalls have failed and that Brown and Shannon will keep their seats. OPB’s  K -12 education reporter Elizabeth Miller joins us now with more. Liz, welcome back.

Elizabeth Miller: Thanks for having me.

Dave Miller: I mentioned the ban on political symbols and the firing of the superintendent, but that doesn’t really capture the extent of the drama over the last year, some of which we talked about, you and I, on this show. Can you give us, once again the short version of the events that led up to this recall to the extent that a short version is possible?

Elizabeth Miller: I will try. Things have been just bubbling up for months now, but I would say, two new board members were elected last May, not Shannon or Brown. They’ve been in since 2019, but those two new board members created a majority and starting in July, August, conversations started about a policy to ban ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Pride’ flags specifically in the district. A lot of it started with Shannon but the other three majority members signed on and agreed and created that voting block that you talked about. Things started really blowing up around August and September as the ban morphed and changed until the ban on ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Pride’ flags became a more general ban on political, controversial or quasi-political symbols. That’s for employees in the district. Students are not subject to that. There was an attorney retained by the conservative Board members, and the way he’s been retained has been called into question legally. That attorney started showing up at meetings and helped really finalize the language of the symbols ban, and all of this happened without a lot of student voice, and with some staff and the union representing teachers speaking out against all of this. Public comment came from folks in support of the ban, folks staunchly against the ban and the board’s actions in general, and then the superintendent got fired. That happened really quickly and without much or any notice and without reasoning because the board didn’t have to give a reason. The district also lost its assistant superintendent. So that’s the short version. I feel like I’m missing a bunch but getting into everything would probably take the whole segment.

Dave Miller: Can you give us a sense though for another piece here that the lawsuits that the school board is facing right now?

Elizabeth Miller: There’s a lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU filed on behalf of the district employee who displayed a rainbow sign in our classroom window. And that sign was the subject of the first complaint brought to the board under the ban gets a little complicated, but there’s also a lawsuit filed by the conservative majority as well as a lawsuit that four board members violated the Oregon Public Meetings Law [OPML] by hiring that attorney.

Dave Miller: What did the recall petitioners say? And focus on  trying to get people, first of all, even just to sign their petitions to get this on the ballot?

Elizabeth Miller: There are different reasons that I kind of come down to the same thing, but the Shannon recall effort started first, and that recall petition focuses really on his leading the charge of the political symbols ban. The recall petitioners say he’s sown drama and division in the Newberg community. And they also point out the broader impact his actions have had on Newberg. The ACLU, the Chamber of Commerce, the Oregon Department, the Oregon State Board of Education, they’ve all kind of come out directly, indirectly speaking against what’s been going on in Newberg. And so with the recall petitioners, they said Shannon is bringing his own ideological agenda into the school district in a questionable way. With Brown’s recall, there’s a focus on what he ran on versus what he’s done. Brown ran on- I just looked back at his 2019 voters’ pamphlet, and there was a ‘we haven’t been succeeding, we haven’t been helping students as much as we can. We’ve been spending too much money, we need to do better.’ So the petitioners focused on his firing Superintendent Joe Morelock and the financial cost of that as well as the cost of hiring an outside attorney and the legal costs associated with the lawsuits facing the District.

Dave Miller: What arguments then did Shannon and Brown make in response? And what did they say about why they should stay in office?

Elizabeth Miller: Starting with Brown, he outlines, ‘Here’s why I did these things.’ He said he voted to remove the superintendent because everyone in the community wasn’t being represented. He said ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Pride’ flags were harmful. And he accused the petitioners of driving a progressive, dangerous agenda, and he said he represents everyone. That’s why he should stay in office. As for Shannon, he accused district employees of trying to push their political views on students with signs and banners and said most in the community support his and Brown’s approach to take politics out of schools.

Dave Miller:  If you’re just tuning in, we’re talking right now about the recall effort against two conservative members of the Newberg School Board. Liz Miller, OPB’s Education Reporter is with us. Although more votes are still to be counted, it does appear right now that the recall effort has failed. So there are ballots still to be counted, but Liz, what does turnout look like at this point?

Elizabeth Miller: In Yamhill County turnout is at 56%, which I haven’t covered an Oregon recall yet. I’ve only been here three years, but that seems pretty good in terms of getting people out to vote. And that amounts to about 14,000 registered voters. As far as results for both Shannon and Brown, it’s about 48% yes, 52% no to the recall at this point. There’s also a small number of voters in Washington and Clackamas County, a few 100 between both counties, Washington county voted no, about 60-40 with Clackamas County voters at about a 50-50 split between yes or no.

Dave Miller: That turnout of 56% or so of eligible voters, how does that compare to the elections in 2019 that actually put Dave Brown and Brian Shannon on the board in the first place?

Elizabeth Miller: School Board elections are never the highest turnout and I really hope that this recall turnout is a sign of the change. But to look back in 2019, 18.95% is the number I was able to find looking back at election results from that time. And that was about 11,700 voters. That’s not a lot of people; and I think this election, and just all the broader attention on elections, on school boards and on education really, I think shows the impact of votes and voting.

Dave Miller: This was the first election in Oregon to be held after a new postmark law went into effect, which means that you only have to have your ballot postmarked by election day, not actually have it arrive at the county elections office. How much does that seem to be affecting things at this point?

Elizabeth Miller: I think it means that there’s some ballots that haven’t shown up yet at the election’s office that still need to be counted. So what shows up in the air and the results right now, according to the Yamhill County Clerk, are all of the ballots the board of elections received in their building by eight p.m. last night. So now they’re waiting to see what rolls in from the mail. So they won’t know the total number of envelopes that come in or that have been submitted for the election for seven days. So on elections like this one, I don’t know if you call it close, I’m not an elections official, it’s going to be days before the results are clear and even then they won’t be final for a few weeks because folks get 21 days to deal with any issues with their signatures, that if their ballot gets rejected.

Dave Miller: As you noted, we won’t have official election results for weeks. But it seems like based on the numbers right now that it would be a surprise if the recall efforts were to overcome the current deficits that they face in the vote tallies. So let’s say that the recalls fail. What happens next?

Elizabeth Miller: Well, the board has to learn to work together and to overcome this. There’s a board meeting next week and I imagine Brown and Shannon will respond to the election results as might the other board members. But more broadly, the fallout from the board’s actions that prompted the recall still continue – there’s the lawsuits and the board has to find a new superintendent. They have a 60 day interim superintendent, but that’s only gonna last for 60 days and we have a whole rest of the school year here. And I also imagine we might see more complaints under the new symbols ban. So we’ll have to see how the board deals with those going forward. But it’s interesting, I think there’s a willingness to want to work together. During the board meeting last week, one member suggested a mediated work session to try to work through some of this. So stay tuned.

Dave Miller: Liz, thanks.

Elizabeth Miller: Yeah. Thanks, Dave.

Dave Miller: Elizabeth Miller is an education reporter for OPB.

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