The influential executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association is on paid administrative leave at his own request, after internal tensions erupted over the group’s handling of a whistleblower complaint.
The now-sidelined leader, Jim Green, spent three decades helping shape education policy behind the scenes in Salem, representing school boards in the bare-knuckled biannual fight for a piece of the state budget pie and debates over changes to the runaway costs of the Public Employees Retirement System.
Green, 59, said his pinnacle achievement was helping broker the Student Success Act in 2019. That law generates $1 billion-plus a year in corporate taxes for education priorities, including student mental health and academic help for marginalized students.
Green, who was paid $197,000 a year, offered a tearful resignation during an executive board meeting in mid-November, one day after a meeting of the association’s full board erupted in finger-pointing, recriminations and allegations of racism.
“I didn’t want my work to be a distraction from the important tasks facing school districts over the next several years,” he said.
At the heart of his resignation is the school boards association’s unusual status as a “public nonprofit.” The school boards association sought that designation, which lawmakers agreed to long ago, to make its employees eligible for Public Employee Retirement System, or PERS, pensions. Other advocacy groups that have similar status include the Oregon Community College Association and the League of Oregon Cities.
Its ability to provide the public pension perk made the school boards group an attractive place to work for public employees who didn’t want to stop accruing their retirement benefits, Green and others said. To help a small number of local government-related advocacy groups capitalize on the PERS connection, the school boards group hired several employees who then worked under contract for another entity, an arrangement the association calls a “pass-through.”
The employers for whom the school boards group arranged pass-throughs included the Coalition of Oregon Schools Administrators, which represents superintendents, principals and other district-level leaders, said Craig Hawkins, the group’s executive director.
“We identified the people we really wanted and they were public employees who wanted to stay in PERS,” Hawkins said. “There has been precedent, as long as the work they are going to do is of benefit to a public employer, you can keep them in PERS.”
He said both organizations had attorneys review the arrangement to make sure it was legal.
A whistleblower, however, complained about the pass-through arrangement under Green. So the school boards association hired an outside lawyer, Kimberlee Morrow of Portland firm Hart Wagner, to investigate.
At the November meeting of the association’s board, Green implied that the board president, Parkrose School Board Chair Sonja McKenzie, prevented him from receiving a copy of Morrow’s report. He said he wanted to see its recommendations so he could take corrective action.
McKenzie disputed that version of events, saying that Morrow advised her to share only a “broad overview” of the findings with other board members, until Morrow herself could walk executive committee members through the recommendations. McKenzie said Morrow assured her that she’d communicate with Green. McKenzie also said it was her understanding the findings would not reflect on Green’s employment status or job performance.
Green raised his voice in response, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by the Oregonian/OregonLive.
“I am not going to let you say that,” he said sharply. “She did not share any information. I am done, guys. This is ridiculous at this point.”
The board did not discuss details of Morrow’s findings because members voted 10-8 to table the discussion.
McKenzie, whose term as the president of the statewide board is up at the end of this year, said the organization intends to resolve any outstanding compliance issues after consulting its lawyer.
Green requested to be on paid leave through Dec. 31, said Alex Pulaski, spokesperson for the school boards association. Green’s former deputy, Emielle Nischik, is serving as the interim executive director.
“Every organization faces challenges, and we are going through some now,” Nischik said in a statement provided to The Oregonian. “There is so much work to do to ensure Oregon students have the opportunity to thrive, so we will keep our focus there.”
Green’s return seems unlikely, though Green said he might seek to stay involved in Oregon politics via another organization.
“Jim Green has been at the heart of so much good work,” Hawkins said. “And we’ve worked together to stop some things we didn’t think were good for kids. He knows the complex policy things in ways that others do not.”
— Julia Silverman, @jrlsilverman, jsilverman@oregonian.com
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