Teaching in the Shadow of the Swoosh: July 2013

Confederation of Oregon School Administrators

Leadership Academy for Beginning Principals
July 18, 19 and 20, 2007
Linfield College

The Faculty:

Linda Borquist, Academy Coordinator

Victor Musial, Field Operations Director, OSEA

Colin Cameron, Director of Professional Development,COSA

Jill O'Neil, Principal, Beaverton Middle School - OMLA President

Vickie Chamberlain, Executive Director, TSPC

Kris Olsen, Principal, McMinnville High School - OASSA President

Matt Coleman, Principal, Westview High School

Shannon Priem, Communication Services Director, OSBA

Vickie Fleming, Superintendent, Redmond SD 2J

Perla Rodriguez, Principal, Cornelius Elementary School - OMLA President

Shawna Harris, Field Representative, OSEA

Nanci Schneider, NWREL

Craig Hawkins, Communications Director, COSA

Valerie Sebesta, Oregon Education Association

Sally Leet, Principal, Oak Grove Elementary School - OESPA Past President

Brian Traylor, Principal, Corvallis Elementary School - OESPA President

Holly Lekas, Regional Administrator, Beaverton SD 48 Joe Wehrili, OSBA

Michael Carter, Superintendent, Rainier SD 13

Philip McCullum, Director Administrative Licensure, University of Oregon

About LeeAnn Larsen:

Before she became a spokesperson for the mismanagement of the Beaverton School District, she was volunteering for what was then the Columbia River Girl Scout Council, where she was in charge of an ambitious program called "bridging," the name for the advancement of Girl Scouts to higher levels.

In 2005, LeeAnn had designed a clever council-wide bridging program, using the space around the Rose Garden to amass large groups of aspiring "bridgees," from where they would take the Max across to the west side of the city, then walk across the Steele Bridge. It was an impressive enterprise. Ms. Larsen is an impressive organizer.

To offset the trepidation that the inner-city experience caused those folks who didn't go downtown much, Leeann asked me to make an instructional video for her. We had met when her son was taking video production classes from me at Westview High School and she had volunteered to work in the media lab. She may recall she that she told my wife that, with five kids in the school system, she was having trouble getting connected with a volunteer opportunity. I always welcomed as many volunteers as would come.

So I made her movie--in THREE LANGUAGES: English, Russian and Spanish. In return, she took to friends of hers on the board (she was not there yet) a copy of the transcript of a hearing that was used to violate my employment contract after I had complained about poor oversight of BSD administrators. The result: The board secretly fired their lawyer, Nancy "Pass-the-Trash" Hungerford, forced associate superintendent Linda Borquist into early retirement, and transferred Holly Lekas out of Human Resources. Malcolm Dennis, Westview principal at the time, was given a secrecy agreement after being caught coming to work drunk and Mike Chamberlain, current Westview principal, continues to be rewarded for his silence.

Ms. Larsen is a capable enough leader but has demonstrated in recent years that she is, at heart, an opportunistic phony who sells out teachers and students to protect her leadership role. If she were EVER made to testify under oath about her secretive activities in the BSD board room, she would have to A) perjure herself or B) lay the district wide open to a class action law suit for a number of criminal acts that are concealed by a systemic dysfunction that has turned many Oregon schools into bastions of mediocrity, making millionaires out of unaccountable former librarians and jayvee coaches while cheating classroom teachers...and their students.

But I bet LeeAnn's kids are getting the best of everything the BSD has to offer, huh?

Statesponsoredtheft.blogspot.com

PS How many languages does Jeff Rose speak?