LCSD board vote on new agreement for Siletz Valley School fails on a technicality, but many questions remain

By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle

Siletz Valley School will remain open with its charter intact after a motion by the Lincoln County School District board to terminate the agreement failed to pass during an emotional and surprising meeting Tuesday night.

Siletz students, staff and school board members shared a wave of relief after the decision and while the mood was largely celebratory there are still many uncertainties about what happens next.

Siletz Valley School has been out of compliance with its charter agreement with the Lincoln County School District since at least 2023, according to an analysis by the Oregon School Boards Association. The school needs $15 million in repairs, students have an attendance rate below 40 percent, and no approved plan for English-language learners among other issues, according to the OSBA and LCSD reports.

Before Tuesday night’s meeting, Superintendent Majalise Tolan recommended terminating the charter and lease agreements and creating new ones so that the school doesn’t have to close and still meeting its legal obligations with the district.

But Tolan’s option didn’t get enough support from the board to pass since one board member was absent and another recused herself from the decision. That means the school will keep its charter agreement – for now. But keeping the current charter doesn’t absolve the district or the school of responsibilities of adhering to the current agreement. 

While the superintendent’s recommendation didn’t pass on a technicality, there are still options the board could choose. Unsure now how to move forward, the district is seeking legal advice from the Oregon Department of Education and hopes to have more information by the board’s April 28 meeting.

Charter agreement

The countywide school district and the Siletz community agreed to set up a charter school in 2003 so that a school there could stay open amidst years of declining enrollment and resulting budget cuts. 

In order to operate, they established a charter and lease agreement – a contract that holds requirements the school must meet from building maintenance to creating student discipline plans. For the past three years, the school has not met many of the requirements.

For the most part, processes and plans are created by the charter and it is up to school administrators and its board to follow them, rather than the sponsoring district creating plans for the semi-independent school to follow. The district is responsible for making sure the school is in compliance with the agreement and has its own obligations that it is held to by the state. 

Turnover in Siletz leadership prompted Tolan to send a letter last July outlining several areas of concern ranging from violations of state public meetings law to how the school reports its finances. The district did not see sufficient improvements, so on Jan. 30 Tolan issued a 60-day notice with the intent to terminate the contract. 

Siletz Valley students, teachers, tribal members and community members packed a March 31 board hearing, advocating to keep the school open and trying to show how they are working toward meeting charter requirements. 

The district largely relied on an outside perspective – an audit from the Oregon School Boards Association – to guide their decision and determine if the school had made the necessary changes or was still out of compliance. By and large, the audit found the school to be out of compliance with its charter.

On Tuesday night, school board members used the audit, the testimony they received and Tolan’s recommendation to try and figure out what to do next.

Options to consider

Siletz Valley School students, staff, board members and alumni watched with anticipation to see what the board would do about the school.

“We’ve had so much taken away as a tribe,” Selene Rilatos, an alumna of the school, told the board.

Rilatos spoke about the importance of the programs the school had on Siletz youth, including a culinary program that has won accolades. “The school is the heart of our community,” she said.

Siletz board chair Jenifer Metcalf said she talked with Tolan nearly every day to get updates on the process and to show that the board was putting in the work to reach compliance.

“I felt like whatever took place, I would hope that our kids could stay in the school. That was my main concern — was our children staying in the school,” Metcalf told the Lincoln Chronicle.

Metcalf said she could see that Tolan was trying to come up with a solution that did just that and that the decision before the board was a difficult one.

Before giving her recommendation, Tolan stressed multiple times that the issue was not with the school’s programming but with objective issues regarding the charter agreement.

“This has nothing to do with great programming for students,” Tolan said. “This is about compliance needs that we had to get into place.”

The board had a few options it could vote on.

It could have voted to reopen the school as a district school, which would bring the school up to compliance with its issues. But that would have meant Siletz staff and students would lose the freedoms of being a charter school and the district would have to take on the financial responsibilities for the building – including $15 million in estimated repairs and upgrades.

It could have voted to close the school in June, but that would leave 189 students to be absorbed into the district’s other schools.

It could also have decided not to terminate the lease agreement and continue to give Siletz more time to work toward compliance. But Tolan didn’t recommend that option because the school had a history of noncompliance.

Instead, Tolan recommended terminating the current charter and making a new one. The move would require the school to create a nonprofit – which the district would handle – and make a new charter agreement. What agreements, requirements and processes would be figured out in the coming weeks through meetings with attorneys, the OSBA and the state. 

A rejection

Only three board members were on the dais to make a decision. Natalie Schaefer of Newport recused herself because she is the executive director of Yakona Nature Preserve which has a financial relationship with the school. Mitch Parsons of Lincoln City had an excused absence.

The decision in front of the school board was perhaps the most difficult he would have to make ever, said longtime board member and chair Peter Vince of Toledo.

“I really believe that superintendent Tolan has found a way forward that will provide a more effective school for Siletz students,” Vince said. “I’m in favor of terminating current charter agreements and developing a new charter that will open in the fall of 2026 and will be a seamless transition so that students and so let’s have a more effective school.” 

Without a doubt, there was a ton of support and passion around the school, said board member Jason Malloy of Newport. But the audit gave an “objective, black and white” view of the issue – compliance.

“We have contracts for a reason and contracts must be followed,” Malloy said.

He advocated for Tolan’s recommendation because it kept the school open and would allow the compliance issues to be addressed.

Board member David Cowden of Yachats voted against the motion and said that he wanted to put children first with his decision.

“I just feel like there’s got to be more that can be done, more involvement from the community,” he said. “Practically the school, there’s gotta be some way that us adults can figure this out and make it work.”

Initially, the board took two votes and recorded the motion passing 2-1 with Vince and Malloy voting yes and Cowden no. But the board then called for a recess so that board secretary Eddie Symington could look up the rules around a governing body’s vote when there is an absence and another board member is recused.

For about 10 minutes, Siletz community members tried to process the board’s decision. Some held hands and cried while others waited in confusion to hear what was going to happen next.

Although the board had a quorum because Schaefer was at the meeting, a motion needed three affirmative votes to pass. Since the vote was 2-1, Tolan’s recommendation was rejected.

What’s next?

For Siletz students, staff and supporters, the action came as a relief.

Having to establish a new charter agreement seemed like something that could potentially change the structure of the school and create further issues on top of the ones they were already addressing, said student Keegan Small.

“I feel very hopeful,” Metcalf said. “I know from the very beginning I felt some deep hope, like our school isn’t going to shut down, that they’re not going to do that because we are trying very hard.”

Metcalf said that getting compliance is still a top priority, even without the threat of a closure or the termination of the legal agreement.

• Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]