Newberg-Dundee Schools Budget, Leadership Crisis

NEWBERG, Ore. — After parents protested, the Newberg Dundee School Board announced that Superintendent Stephen Phillips will go on medical leave for the next two months. Former Superintendent Paula Radich will serve as interim chief, which she’s volunteered to do for free. Phillips and other district leaders waited until late May to tell the board it’s overspent its budget by millions of dollars.

Lisa Joyce tells the school board that’s unacceptable. “We have no confidence in the top three and we hope to see them leave,” she said.   New resident Lucas Morgan said, “My sister is an educator here and I was taken aback and like slightly heartbroken It’s such a wonderful little community Is going through so much from their education system I think there’s probably a huge number of factors that lead to something like this. But I felt driven to be involved.”

The school board set a special session for June 18th and a special budget session for June 24th as they try to solve their almost 14 million dollar two year budget deficit.