Up Next: Jim Mabbott
Jewell School Board next turned to the Northwest Regional Educational Services District Superintendent (NWRESD) Jim Mabbott, who stepped in himself to take over the reigns of the beleaguered district. Mabbott was only able to be onsite in Jewell one day a week, however, his main goal was to get the school district back on track. “If we are going to be involved, this is the way it must be,” Mabbott told the school board. He felt the majority of the community supported that.
Mabbott says that there were huge gaps between policy and procedures. There were issues involving curriculum and textbook adoptions. “We could not fix all of those issues in the time we had but we created a solid plan [to fix the problems].”
On an ongoing basis ESD’s Instruction and School Improvement Services Department provides support and consultation services in curriculum and staff development to 20 component school districts. Services are designed to assist districts in meeting the requirements of Oregon 21st Century Reform. Through strategic planning ESD: Provides assistance to component districts to support their efforts to improve student performance; Improves the collaborative partnership with school districts, ODE, the U.S. Department of Education, other public and private educational agencies and the NWRESD; Provides assistance to component school districts in curriculum alignment processes and textbook adoption cycles; Provides assistance to component school districts in the development and implementation of a continuous improvement plan.
The Statement of Assurances form that Mike Tiedeman received on his first day on the job had been filled out and sent in every year yet Mabbott could not find an up to date state approved written curriculum for the school or state approved text book either. “Until that district gets back on track they will not attract a high caliber candidate for the superintendent position,” Mabbott firmly stated. Oly Schockelt’s, and other’s like him, opinion that the Jewell School District would be better off without using the services of ESD is something that Mabbott finds hard to understand.
Even while John Seeley was still superintendent, Jim Mabbott reflected, Karl Meier and Ann Samuelson contacted NWRESD to report fiscal concerns and asked if ESD could help them look at their fiscal policies and procedures. Mabbott indicated that Superintendent Seeley told NWRESD he was opposed to that help. Without board direction or the support of the superintendent NWESD could not step in.
According to Mabbott, Oly Schockelt was on the board and was outspoken in not wanting the help of the Educational Services District. Looking back at news reports of that time Schockelt, a board member of five years, felt that most of Jewell’s problems come down to “technicalities.” Schockelt didn’t feel that it in any way affected the integrity of the school system or the way that the school was ran.
- The Education Service Districts of Oregon provide
- Special Student Services: Early Intervention (Birth to 3) Early Childhood Special Education (3-5); Behavioral Programs (K-12); Related Services (Birth to 21).
- Instructional Services: Curriculum and Staff Development; School Improvement Services; Professional Development; Migrant/English Language Learner (ELL) Services; Northwest Outdoor Science School, Terra Nova High School; CAPITAL Center High School Technology Institute; Tillamook County Health Services Academy and Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation Program; GED Testing Services; and Title VII Indian Education Services.
- Technology Services: Technology Services to Schools; Software & Application Support; Management Information Systems (MIS); Testing & Assessment Scoring Services; Multimedia; Videoconferencing.
- Other Support Services: Truancy Enforcement; Home School Registration; Printing & Graphics Services; and Courier Services.
In early 2006 the majority of the Jewell School Board turned its nose up at using these services for their school district. By January 2007, however, a new board looked at the situation differently and Mabbott himself took time away from his work as the director of the Northwest Regional office of the Educational Service District to help Jewell get back on track.
“For the first time in many, many years there is a partnership between the school district and its service providers,” Mabbott reported. When asked what would happen if the district were to take a step back now, Mabbott replied, “It would be a huge mistake. The board is on the right track.” The plan that Mabbott initiated and that the current administrator, Jerry Jones, is implementing, “has been added to in a positive way by the current board and administration,” Mabbott affirmed.
Looking at the Jewell School District’s programs, developed by John Seeley and funded by the Jewell School District at what appears to be the expense of other academic programs (i.e. the over $80,000 that had to be repaid to the state for grant money that was not properly accounted for) and comparing that to the programs and services already developed and funded by the NWESD it seems that a complete analysis of the appropriate use of fiscal funds may not have occurred.
Jewell’s Guaranteed Success program has not produced the results expected, according to the teachers and parents involved in the program, nor the test scores on the national standardized testing. The cost of this program is truly hard to compute as proper accounting procedures for it were never kept. Reimbursements were made without proper receipts, purchase orders were not made, trip vouchers not kept, reimbursements were made on credit card statements and a total tally of expenditures does not appear to have been done per trip.
One of the ESD programs compatible to the Guaranteed Success Program or Creative Week could be Place Based Education. NWRESD hosts a four-day institute offering teachers, school administrators, and community members an opportunity to become familiar with the possibilities, principles, and practices of place-based education. This approach to teaching and learning focuses on local culture, history, natural resource issues, economics, and community processes as the basis for a proportion of students’ educational experiences. Teaching in this way benefits both students and their communities. Students encounter learning opportunities that are personally engaging and valued by others. And communities gain from the imagination, energy, and commitment of their youngest citizens. While the trips offered for completing homework provided students with a type of education that families offer during vacations, the Place Based Education program gives the students the skills and tools to proceed academically, which a school district is responsible to its patrons to do.
Ann Samuelson sits on the NWRESD board and her familiarity with the services it provides and the benefits it could bring (and is currently providing) to the Jewell School District is evident in the consistency with which she encourages the district to turn to its services. That ESD values Samuelson is also evident. When asked what Mabbott thought about the recall effort he responded, “Karl Meier and Ann Samuelson are fine public servants and they should both be thanked for their commitment to serving the community of the Jewell School District. It will be a loss to the district to lose either of them as board members.”
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