Prineville, Ore. – Downtown Prineville as well as the Crook County School District Office was overrun this morning by hundreds of high school and even some middle school students who were protesting the district’s handling of a complaint against Athletic Director Rob Bonner.
The scene was filled with the near constant noise of honking motorists in apparent support of the student’s protest, with many repeatedly chanting “We want Bonner” and holding signs with slogans like “Rob was robbed” and “Supporting Bonner is our honor.”
Several high school seniors said they had never seen anything like this walkout, with one group of students calling it “historic”. After protesting for nearly an hour at Pioneer Park, students marched down Prineville’s 3rd Street and protested outside the district’s offices on the east side of town.
The Prineville Review uncovered last week the Crook County School Board violated Oregon’s public meetings law when it failed to provide written notice to Bonner of an executive session last Monday (Dec. 9th)– notice that would have provided Bonner the right to require the elected school board to hold its discussions in a public meeting instead behind closed doors in an executive session.
Following our reporting days ago, public outcry from parents, students, and others in the community has exploded. Our own newsroom phone line continued to ring throughout the weekend, including in the early morning and into the late evenings. The calls included many giving support for Bonner, providing tips related to allegations of past meetings violations by the school board, and claims about other alleged ethics issues by school administration.
Board chair Jennifer Knight and Scott Cooper told the Prineville Review they disagreed with this publications interpretation of the law after we raised questions about the legitimacy of the Dec. 9th executive session under the public meetings law. Oregon’s public meetings law require journalists be permitted into most executive sessions — allowing the media to be watchdogs of government. We are generally not permitted to disclose the contents of executive sessions unless the information can be learned or obtained outside of the session from other sources.
While Knight said they disagreed with this publications interpretation of the law after pointing to an administrative rule that also supplements the statute, Scott went on to claim some executive sessions under ORS 192.660(2)(b) did not require notice to the official based upon its own internal appeal/complaint process.
Officials with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission promptly confirmed there there were no exceptions under the law if executive sessions are held under (2)(b) or (2)(i) involving public officials (which include all school district employees). Despite indirect assertions that it did not provide the required notice due to the board moving to schedule another session as explained by Knight and Scott, no direct response to our questions asking if it had failed to provide Bonner notice were made.
Earlier this morning, district officials also provided notice to the Prineville Review that the executive session scheduled before the special board meeting was cancelled. Several sources close to the situation believed it was likely cancelled due to Bonner telling officials he was exercising the right to require the session be held in public.
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The Prineville Review, in conjunction with reporters with KTVZ and Central Oregon Daily, requested a joint interview this morning with district staff, specifically with Dr. Melissa Skinner, the district’s superintendent. Staff at the district office initially told the Prineville Review that Dr. Skinner and other staff who could speak with us were currently “unavailable” and in “meetings”.
However, the district’s new communications director later gave an interview and made a conflicting claim that Skinner was actually “out of the state” due to a personal emergency, a statement made after additional pressure from Central Oregon Daily reporter Colby Enebrad asking why Skinner would not accommodate the interview request amid the unprecedented walkout.
The district also waited until this morning to provide the Prineville Review an update about the location of the public meeting, despite having making an update last night via social media. Under the law, the district is required to provide specific notice to members of the news media who have requested notice of the public body’s meetings.
That meeting is now set to take place at 6pm tonight in the Crook County Middle School cafeteria. Another protest in support of Bonner by parents and students is reportedly scheduled to start about 5:30pm outside the school.
According to the meetings updated agenda, the board is set to address the complaint, which appears to corroborate the report that Bonner had moved to require the board to take-up the matter in a public session as is his right under the public meetings law.
According to resident Ashley Thrasher, a group of parents are reportedly preparing to submit a complaint against Skinner with the school board as well. The complaint also focused on questions surrounding recent hiring of board member Jessica Brumble by Skinner as the new Transportation Manager, although Brumble is technically Skinner’s boss. Brumble’s board resignation was announced at the same time.
The complaint also raised questions about potential conflicts-of-interest with the reported hiring of Skinner’s family members, including her husband and son to roles within the district.
Trasher shared a copy of the unsigned complaint and told the Prineville Review that situation raised “serious questions of ethics and transparency.”
The complaint reads in part, “[Skinner’s] husband currently holds an administrative position, which is intended to be directly managed by the Superintendent. While it is understood that Dr. Hoff is providing direct management for Mr. Skinner’s performance, Dr. Skinner is responsible for the performance of Grizzly Mountain and is the escalation point if performance issues, complaints, etc. arise from Mr. Skinner’s job responsibilities.”
The complaint also goes on to further alleged that Bonner’s rights were violated with the handling of its previous executive session (the same one uncovered by the Prineville Review on Dec. 9th).
“Recent accusations that the board has violated Athletic Director Rob Bonner’s rights to a fair hearing have brought about additional concerns with Dr. Skinner’s management of complaints raised against staff,” the complaint reads.
“This communication clearly did not take place as he was not notified of the meeting about the complaint against him [Bonner].”
The complaint also called for the an investigation be escalated to officials with the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. The OGEC not only investigates complaints related to violations of Oregon’s public meetings law (a new area of oversight under recent changes in law), but also allegations of violations of Oregon’s ethics laws in ORS Ch. 244.
The school board’s special meeting can be attended remotely this evening as well via Zoom. Meeting information can be found by clicking here.
This is a developing story you can count on us to keep you updated on. We will be covering this evening’s (Dec. 16th) public meeting. Join the discussion on Facebook or X (formally Twitter).
