Silver Falls School District superintendent resigns after weeks of confusion

Supt. Andy Bellando has resigned from the Silver Falls School District’s top job, effective July 1, along with Asst. Supt. Dandy Stevens, and leaving day-to-day operations in the hands of a new hire from the Portland area.

Dan Busch was hired away from Tigard-Tualatin School District this spring to fill Stevens’ job as assistant superintendent. With this week’s turn of events, he’ll likely serve as Silver Falls’ acting superintendent.

“The process of getting up to speed … has already begun,” Busch said. “I’ve attended several board meetings, met each principal and begun the process of getting to know the rest of our staff. In the coming weeks … I’m looking forward to several upcoming meetings with community members, as well as getting to know the leaders in the Silver Falls Education Association.”

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School Board Chair Tom Buchholz did not respond to an interview request.

Bellando is closing out a 31-year career with the Silver Falls School District, the last nine as superintendent. Before that, he was an agriculture and science teacher, vice principal, principal and personnel director. In 1990, he was named Oregon’s Outstanding Agriculture Teacher, selected by members of the Oregon Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association.

“I’m very proud of the school district and what I’ve done here,” he said. “A high performing district like ours does not occur by chance. It’s also not the result of priorities which are exclusive to one person, to labor leadership or to a special interest group.”

He touted Silver Falls’ 91 percent graduation rate, adding, “This is a great school district that’s moving in the right direction.”

Two years remained on his contract with the district, but he began hinting at retiring in early June. Two new board members were elected in May, leaving only one member – Ervin Stadeli – of those who hired him nine years ago.

Bellando said he was “looking forward to a newly defined board” and is leaving because it’s “the right time” — though he admitted ongoing public criticism played a part in his decision to retire now.

“Continuing as superintendent is an option, but when some individuals become louder and louder, and they provide no solutions to consider, that’s not in my best interest,” he said at a board work session on June 24. “The most important thing, it’s not in the best interest of students.”

School Board Chairman Tom Buchholz did not respond to an interview request.

Criticism of the district’s leadership, calls for change

Criticism of the district’s leadership and direction has cropped up in some public testimony at board meetings and on social media over the last few years. Calls for change lead up to the 2017 school board election, when, for the first time in local history, a political action committee formed and backed candidates in the race.

That PAC, Silverton Opportunity, dedicated to putting female members on the school board, let its state registration lapse last year, but one of its founders, Naseem Rakha, has remained a regular presence at board meetings.

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Her husband, Chuck Sheketoff, formerly the director of the progressive non-profit Oregon Center for Public Policy, also closely follows school district meetings, requests public documents, and regularly emails and posts to Facebook for those interested in school board activity. The couple’s son graduated from Silverton High School last year.

“In my opinion, our district has long been buffered by a passive school board and a weak teachers union,” Rakha wrote on Facebook. “The school board, by and large has been little more than a rubber stamp for Supt. Andy Bellando, and the union, until recently, lacked the wherewithal to adequately represent its members.”

Over the past few years, their – and others’ – public criticism of the school district has ranged from Silverton High’s handling of a pro-Trump student rally in 2016, a former board member’s political comments on social media, uneven academic and support services in the district’s rural schools, and a lack of diversity on the board and committees.

Most recently, the couple joined teachers and parents frustrated over administrators’ handling of a pair of Silverton High teachers who filed grievances after being disciplined over a grading disagreement. An outside arbitrator found in the teachers’ favor, upholding their complaint of retaliation for engaging in union activity from their principal and other administrators.

In a letter sent to the board one day before Bellando retired, Rakha urged board members to postpone voting on any extensions to his contract until more fully investigating complaints made by teachers at a collective bargaining session after release of the arbitrator’s report of similar retaliatory action.

“My problem with Andy Bellando is that he has allowed a culture of fear and retaliation against teachers to grow and fester under his watch,” she said. “As a leader, (he) worked hard to make sure the Silver Falls School District appeared to excel when compared to other rural districts, and in some ways it does.

"But his actions, and the actions of those who served him were geared not just to contain criticism, but to squelch and even attack those who attempted to draw attention to problems in our district.”

A staff divided?: 'us-versus-them mentality'

Bellando and Asst. Supt. Dandy Stevens said in their closing remarks on Monday that they are sorry about the situation that led to grievances and arbitration – “We get it. We own it. We have to own it,” he said – but both noted that the arbitrator sustained just one of dozens of complaints filed by the union.

In her departing comments, Stevens painted a picture of high school staff that’s divided against itself.

“It’s time the high school staff looked to themselves,” she said. “There are two groups, the non-verbal majority and the vocal minority, who are involved in an unhealthy subculture that breeds an us-versus-them mentality.”

Stevens leaves this month to start a new job as Gervais School District’s superintendent. The board had already hired Busch this spring to take over her duties, most of which related to human resources. Bargaining with teachers now falls to him and the board overseeing him.

Originally, when Bellando proposed retirement, he asked the board for an additional year of temporary employment that would’ve kept him in Silverton through spring of 2020. He submitted both proposals at the June 10 board meeting, saying later he was surprised by public outcry over the idea.

“Double-dipping” is the term used when public employees start collecting retirement while continuing working on a temporary basis. Locally, some retired Silver Falls teachers draw retirement while subbing halftime. State law is set to change Jan. 1 to allow full-time work post-retirement.

“On my part, it really was an honest request for the board to consider," Bellando said. “I was a little surprised by the feedback from the community, so I responded to what I read within my board and withdrew both requests.”

Two weeks later, he followed up with a retirement request only, effective July 1.

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“Had it been possible to know all the circumstances, if you could’ve worked six more months – or a year – I would’ve appreciated that,” board member Jon Edwards told the superintendent after his announcement.

“It’s a damn shame that a man who has given so much time to the district would leave the district with only a week’s notice,” Rakha said. “I think it is a shame the superintendent did not work with the board to develop a transition plan and help in the search for his replacement.”

Besides bargaining, there’s plenty of business on the school district’s table now: two charter schools’ contracts up for renewal, a long-range facilities planning committee needing a consultant and meeting dates, and talk of turning Mark Twain and Robert Frost schools into K-5’s.

“Your new superintendent will guide you and lead you in these important processes, as long as you allow that person to do his or her job,” Bellando said.

At the June 24 meeting, he thanked six of the seven board members for “putting kids first,” “authentic dialogue” and “thinking for yourself,” indirectly referencing the verbal skirmishes he and board member Shelly Nealon have had in public meetings since her election in 2017.

Nealon declined to comment but told Bellando at the meeting, “I am disappointed that you resigned tonight. It’s no secret that you and I didn’t see eye-to-eye all the time … but I wanted to work really hard to heal our district.”

Since that meeting, online comments have flooded social media, but statements at the meeting were short. Buchholz, the chairman, and board members Stadeli and Jennifer Traeger each thanked Bellando for his service. Ron Valoff said, “It sickens me” to see public criticism pushing his departure, and Vice Chair Tim Roth called him “a person of the highest character.”

Said Rakha: "I look forward to the district under new leadership, acting with greater self-confidence, acceptance and fairness in the future.”

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