CHdistrictInTrouble
text extracted from pdf. Line spacing and some punctuation may be lost. district i_p1.txt NOVEMBER 27, 2021 SUBSCRIBE LOGINThe? Register-GuardARCHIVE? LOCAL NEWSdistrict? in crisisA recall vote leaves a small towns school board without a quorum justas it faces serious management issuesBY WINSTON ROSSThe? Register-GuardAPPEARED? IN PRINT: MONDAY, NOV. 15, 2010, PAGE A1Y? ONCALLA A controversial Elvis performance by the school superintendent,it turns out, is the least of the Yoncalla School Districts problems.Posted on YouTube?, where it has drawn thousands of views, the video showsstudents either laughing hysterically or recoiling as Superintendent Marc Thielmangyrates in front of them, decked out in a tight white Elvis jumpsuit and female wig.Its one of the reasons resident Sheila Cox led a recall effort against school boardmembers Cathey Grimes, Scott Sublette and Jill Cunningham, who all lost theirboard positions on Election Day. But it may be the strangest element in a crisis the300-student district now faces.Yoncalla has only one person working in the administrative office at the moment,and its Thielman. He fired the business manager and secretary after learning thatthe districts finances have been managed so poorly that the state of Oregon is nowdemanding that an outside auditor investigate alleged misuse of state and federalfunds. The Douglas County Education Service District will handle payroll andaccounting for the district for the next two years, because theres no one else to doit. district i_p2.txt The five-member school board will soon cease to exist, at least temporarily, becauseonce the election results are certified on Nov. 22, there will be no quorum until theDouglas County ESD board appoints replacements. In the meantime, theres apower vacuum, and nobody seems to know who has the authority to makeemergency decisions without a school board.So the Elvis incident, by comparison, has come to symbolize the problems facing thedistrict, and by extension, the town of Yoncalla itself.Coxs issue with the school board members who were recalled is that they are tooclosely aligned with Thielman, she said. When he proposed selling the districtsentire bus fleet to Mid-Columbia Bus Co. for $284,000, for example, the boardmembers went along with it, even though some argued that it was a bad long-termmove and unnecessary. Critics also say the district shouldnt have hired Thielman in2008, because he once faced an ethics charge in his last job in Washington state forfailing to make a timely return of extra salary he was inadvertently paid.Then came a skit before the high school student body, when Thielman dressed up assome kind of female Elvis and performed a few lines from Hound Dog, which wascaptured on a students camera. At the end of the video, the student can be heardtelling her friend Do you see what Im looking at?As Cox puts it, He appeared to have a large erection in front of the entire studentbody. At a minimum, he should have spoken up and apologized to the public forhis immature behavior. At the maximum, he should have been let go on the spot.Thielman, who has apologized for the incident more times than he cares toremember, says there was nothing untoward about the performance, other thanthat the costume was too tight for him. It was supposed to be the school principalsoutfit, Thielman said, but a last-minute conflict left the superintendent to fill in.The videos not flattering, and its obviously not something thats likely to berepeated, Thielman said. But its a 30-second blip of an ill-fitting costume.Ousted school board member Cathey Grimes said she got a copy of a DVD of hisperformance in a blank manila envelope and that the board contacted the OregonSchool? Boards Association for guidance, only to learn that because there was nospecific complainant, disciplinary action would be inappropriate. district i_p3.txt There was nothing we could do about it, Grimes said. Marc did not realize theoutfit was ill-fitting. He was totally embarrassed.As for the bus fleet, that move does increase the districts busing costs by about$10,000 annually, but the windfall from selling the fleet prevents job cuts, Grimessaid. Thielman was upfront about his past in Washington state, she added, and theboard was fine with hiring him anyway.The recall effort, Grimes said, is more about Cox being bitter that her sister- in-law isthe ousted business manager, fired in September after the district discovered a slewof problems with the way she was handling the books, as are now well documentedby the county Education Service Districts staff. Those include:Employees not being enrolled in the Oregon Educators Benefit Board, meaningthey may not be eligible for medical, dental and vision insurance.Insufficient fund balances in the districts U.S. Bank account, on severaldifferent occasions.Failure to take out withholding taxes for four months during the fall of 2009,which meant employees had to come up with that money out of pocket at tax time.Miscalculation of transportation funds over a period of several years, whichexposes the district to liability.A missing check register, or any record of checks issued by the district.District computers possibly used to do the books for a private company ownedby the business managers husband.An unusual number of pay rates for employees were incorrect.Social Security numbers incorrectly applied to employees.Significant issues uncovered regarding the Public Employee RetirementSystem? and W-2 forms.Medical benefits provided to select employees without deducting theappropriate amount of salary to pay for those benefits.Cash flow miscalculations that resulted in a deficit of $100,000 once thought tobe on hand for the current budget.How to fix any of those problems with a school board full of empty seats is thedistricts next conundrum. Douglas County will start accepting applicants at the endof the month for new board members, but the soonest they could make up a school district i_p4.txt board is early next year, which means the district is something of a rudderless shipuntil then.The law is kind of vague about whos in charge, said George Murdock,superintendent of the Education Service District.The whole thing is clearly a mess, people in Yoncalla say, summed up this way atlast Monday nights Yoncalla School Board meeting by resident Sheryl Brawn.The fiasco, she said, has created a black cloud over this town.SubmitChoose?...ConnectChoose?...MarketplaceChoose?...Subscriber ServicesChoose?...THE REGISTER-GUARD3500? CHAD DRIVE, SUITE 600 EUGENE, OR 97408(541) 485-1234 FEEDBACKCOPYRIGHT 19962021TERMS PRIVACY COPYRIGHT
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