Short description: Please sign this petition in support of waiving the $6,932.82 fee that Vale School District wants to charge me for access to public records about a secret agreement they have with the teachers union not to use the word Christmas to describe Christmas Break.

Long description: At the March 2024 Vale School District Board Meeting, director Darlene McConnell told director Ryan Bates that she would not vote to approve a school calendar that uses the word Christmas to identify Christmas Break. She explained that the Superintendent had made an agreement with the teacher's union not to use the word Christmas. Director Bates stated that he was not part of that agreement and asked what the consequences would be of ignoring it. Both superintendent Alisha McBride and teacher's union president Andy Hally were present at the meeting. Neither gave any information regarding the agreement or what would happen if the school board ignored the agreement.

I called the school to follow up with Mr. Hally. He told me he would not discuss the agreement with me. I asked him to clarify if he could not or if he would not, as I understand there are some things in collective bargaining that are not public record. Mr. Hally repeated that he would not discuss it with me and referred me to the state union representative. The rep had no knowledge of the agreement and couldn't answer any questions about it.

I emailed Mrs. McBride asking about the secret agreement. She answered about half my questions saying it was an unwritten, informal agreement she made when they were developing the 2022-23 school calendar. She tried to hide behind the Collective Bargaining Act, which doesn't apply to unwritten agreements. Mrs. McBride told me that to reinstate the phrase Christmas Break, it would have to go through the teacher's union, which is false. I reminded her that I was still waiting for answers to some of my questions. In her response email, she directed me to follow District complaint procedure, effectively refusing to answer anymore questions about her secret agreement.

At this point I made a public records request. I had gone to the two people who made this agreement and neither will discuss it, leaving no other option but a public records request. Under Oregon’s Public Records Law, “every person” has a right to inspect any nonexempt public record of a public body in Oregon. Parents, students, and our community need to know about secret agreements made by the school district with the teacher's union to censor words or phrases in order to deny reality to create a new culture they deem acceptable. Banning the phrase Christmas Break is clear censorship, and the school is trying to keep it invisible to parents, students and community.

1. First, the school district kept the agreement secret in October 2023 when I submitted a written request to use the phrase Christmas Break. I spoke at the October board meeting about my request and spoke to individual board directors. No one mentioned that my request could not be granted because of an agreement already in place. In fact, no response to my request was issued at all. I did not find out about the secret agreement until the March 2024 board meeting when Director McConnell referred to it. Mrs. McBride has refused to answer questions about it.
2. Second, the school district has avoided any accountability of this agreement by not following Board Policy regarding the district calendar. Policy requires the district the obtain teacher, parents, and community input before approving the school calendar. The superintendent sends multiple calendar versions and surveys to teachers to obtain their input. They have not obtained, or even attempted to obtain, input from parents and the community. We are a community based in reality. We don't call up "down", or call black "white" because its the new popular thing to do. Our school district has wisely scheduled a break for the federal holiday of Christmas in an effort to support student and staff attendance. It is a nightmare for a teacher to have half a class show up because they know they will have to literally teach the entire lesson again to students who missed it the first time. Taking a break from classes during the Christmas season is a reasonable way to maintain attendance of students and employees during this time of year. The school district also takes a Thanksgiving Break and Spring Break. Spring Break used to be Easter Break until it no longer followed the moving date of the Easter holiday. That has not happened with Christmas Break. The school district has not said they don't want a Christmas Break, they are just saying we shouldn't call it what it is.
3. Third, the district sent my records request to their lawyer in an attempt to keep information about the agreement secret. They have decided to charge me almost $7,000 in order to have access to the public records pertaining to the agreement. They say it's so expensive because they have to pay someone to review all the emails about the subject for redact-able information. The outrageous fee is simply an attempt to stop any information about the agreement from becoming public. The superintendent and the school board should be ashamed of this records request. It could have been completely avoided if the superintendent had answered questions about her agreement.

In the end, our entire town of taxpayers will pay for this records request to be completed. Please be sure to thank the superintendent for wasting her budget on a lawyer instead of being open. She is trying to avoid accountability for an obviously poor decision. Public education is a cornerstone of our small town, educating our children and creating a shared culture of experiences that bind us together. Accountability and transparency is paramount to parents being able to trust Vale School District 84 with our children.