The Lebanon School Board meeting last week spotlighted a contentious Oregon House bill that could cede significant financial control to the Oregon Department of Education, drawing sharp concerns from Board Chair Tom Oliver over its threat to local autonomy.
Oliver warned that HB 2009 and its companion bill, Senate Bill 141, if enacted, would allow ODE to control up to 25% of a school district’s state school fund allocation – amounting to $12.5 million for Lebanon – if the district is labeled underperforming after a three-year period.”
As described in a Oregon Capital Chronicle report, “both House Bill 2009 and Senate Bill 141 would bring statutory teeth to the state’s education agency, which has long been treated more like a bureaucratic granting institution and source for school guidance than a regulator, and where top-down school reform has been a choice rather than a mandate for chronically underperforming districts.”
The catch? ODE alone defines “underperforming,” a vagueness Oliver called “troubling.”
“This is a significant shift for ODE that has some potentially troubling aspects in terms of removing local control from districts,” Oliver said. “ODE is not staffed to have that kind of intervention and control in a district, so this is a way for ODE to increase staffing, which is going to come straight out of the state school fund money that would otherwise be allocated to schools.”
Supt. Jennifer Meckley added that accountability hinges on assessments students can opt out of, complicating efforts to gather reliable data.
“Nothing is wrong with measuring those,” she said. “It’s the accountability piece and the ability for us to actually address those things and have accurate data to show we are making improvements that’s the challenge.”
Adding to the legislative concerns, Will Lewis, LCSD’s chief operating officer, testified in support of HB2307, a bill that responds to previously passed legislation prohibiting the installation of fluorescent lamps in classrooms.
The district must replace 5,699 light fixtures across all buildings, a project estimated to cost $1,425,000. HB2307 offers nearly a five-year window to complete the switch. “It’s basically a waiver of time. We hope that passes,” Meckley said.
The school district is facing scrutiny from the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) over noncompliance with the Menstrual Dignity Act, which mandates that menstrual products be available in all high school bathrooms, including boys’ restrooms. The ODE has pushed for increased availability of these products, but Board Chair Oliver pointed out logistical challenges. He noted difficulties in maintaining the availability and correct amount of menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms, suggesting issues such as misuse or vandalism, though he did not provide specific details. ODE’s solution was for the school to “counsel the students not to do what they are doing,” said Oliver.
Beyond these headliners, the board tackled routine business.
Members renewed teacher contracts and approved the 2025-26 certified calendar, opting for a post-Labor Day start – subject to bargaining, while deciding against making up recent snow days, thanks to sufficient instructional minutes.
Department reports highlighted the district’s, and most Oregon school districts, reliance on grants, which come with increasingly complex rules and requirements.
Chief Operating Officer Will Lewis commended the business office staff for their exceptional work in navigating this challenging landscape.
“Funding has become a lot more segmented,” he said, emphasizing the staff’s adept compliance. “Missing those requirements have severe consequences.”
Lewis also celebrated the completion of a new warehouse for the facilities team, a project led by Bryan Eilers, head of facilities. By heading up the construction himself, Eilers reduced the building cost to less than one-third of the typical market rate.
“Because of this, we were able to build this project on less than one-third of what it would have cost to go out into the marketplace,” Lewis said. The new warehouse includes bulk storage for cost-saving supply orders and a dedicated shop space for the facilities team, freeing up areas the department would be using in the schools.
The next Lebanon School Board meeting will be held on April 14 at 6 p.m. at the Santiam Travel Station.
(The Oregon Capital Chronicle report referenced earlier can be viewed at oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/03/10/state-education-officials-would-have-power-to-intervene-in-struggling-schools-under-governors-plan)