Superintendent takes leave; board to meet
Discussion of Brockett’s possible termination goes public; Mac school board meets Monday night
McMinnville Superintendent Debbie Brockett took a leave of absence Friday, one day after she sent an email to administrators and leaders of employee unions saying the school board is considering her termination.
On Thursday, she directed administrator and union leaders to an agenda item for tonight’s board meeting, “Administrator Contract.” In the message, obtained by the News-Register, she stated the board “has decided to put forward a vote on the early termination of my contract, without cause.”
The next morning, McMinnville School Board Chair Jason Bizon posted a message to his Facebook page stating he would “not support a ‘no cause’ separation with McMinnville’s superintendent.”
The McMinnville School Board held a pre-scheduled executive session Friday night regarding the contract. It had been announced several days before Brockett’s email to staff and union leaders. Members then added a closed executive session to tonight’s public business meeting.
The executive session will start at 6 p.m. and the regular meeting at 6:30 in the district office, 800 N.E. Lafayette Ave., McMinnville; the business session also will be available on Zoom.
With Brockett on leave, day-to-day operation of the 6,300-student district is being handled by the district leadership team, said Stefanie Frost, director of personnel. The team is comprised of the director of each aspect of the school system. In addition to Frost, it includes the directors of curriculum and assessment, facilities, finances and student services, most of whom are longtime administrators in McMinnville schools.
In her Thursday message, Brockett said she had recently received a positive evaluation.
“I want to be transparent in saying that I have no additional information to share regarding the reasons behind this decision,” she wrote.
The board conducted her annual evaluation during executive sessions in March, and was scheduled to formally accept the results at its meeting tonight.
In response to her Thursday message, the McMinnville Education Association, in turn, notified teachers to inform them about the situation.
The MSD Leadership Team sent out a message saying it “stands ready to continue the important work of supporting our students and staff.”
In his post to Facebook, Bizon highlighted positive results of Brockett’s four annual evaluations, and argued that firing her would have a negative impact on students and programming. Buying out the remaining two years of Brockett’s contact could cost in excess of $359,000, he stated, and it would be a “bad business decision” to hire an interim superintendent and then launch into the hiring process with an executive search firm to find a permanent replacement.
McMinnville, like all Oregon schools, is facing budget shortages for the coming year, a problem exacerbated by concerns about possible cuts in federal funding.
The district already has started trimming non-classroom positions, such as some at the district office, in an effort to save money before the end of this school year. Brockett and other administrators have said they plan to use some of the district’s reserve funds next year to maintain as many jobs, programs and student support activities as possible.
Response to the board chair’s Facebook post was mixed, with some people standing in agreement and others calling for the district to get rid of the superintendent – and the board, as well. Many others questioned why the subject of her possible removal had been raised at all, seemingly without warning.
Several board members spoke to Bizon about his Facebook post during the Friday executive session.
Brockett, who told the News-Register she would not comment on Bizon’s statement, joined the McMinnville School District in 2021 following the retirement of Maryalice Russell, who was superintendent for 19 years.
Brockett moved to the district after a long career as a special education teacher and administrator in the Las Vegas school district in Nevada. She was away from the McMinnville District Office in the past week because she was attending a Google for Education conference for which she was chosen as a speaker.
Bizon and two other board members, Abbie Warmbier and Christine Bader, are running unopposed to retain their seats in the May 20 election.
Bizon and Warmbier were elected to the board in 2021 after Brockett was hired.
Bader was appointed last fall to replace Carson Benner, who had been part of the board that conducted the superintendent search in 2020-21.
Current members Larry Vollmer and Gerardo Partida also were involved in the search. The other two current board members are LuAnn Anderson and Doris Towery, both of whom were elected for the first time in 2023. All four of their positions will be up for election again in 2027.
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