Prineville, Ore. – The Crook County School District Board appears ready to take action related to a potential separation agreement with Superintendent Dr. Melissa Skinner during a special meeting that will take place virtually this evening (Jan 27th, 2025).
While the meeting notice was provided to the Prineville Review as required under Oregon law, as well as uploaded to the district’s normal meeting agenda listing, it did not appear the district was announcing the meeting on social media as it has been doing in recent months.
According to a meeting notice, a special meeting of the CCSD Board will take place virtually only this evening at 5:30 pm to address two key items.
The first lists the “Superintendent Separation Agreement”, and indicates that some sort of “action” is expected to take place.
It was unclear if this meant the district was prepared to discuss and then approve an agreement that was set to be negotiated between Skinner and Board Member Steve Holiday. At a previous board meeting, Holiday was selected to negotiate the mutual separate agreement on behalf of the board with Skinner.
The separate comes after a recent controversy involving the district’s Athletic Director Rob Bonner and the appointment of now-former CCSD Board Member Jessica Brumble who Skinner had hired as the district’s new transportation services manager. That hiring led Brumble to resign in order to avoid a conflict of interest.
A recent investigation into Bonner reportedly cleared him of any wrongdoing related to a volleyball parents’ complaint being reviewed by the board, according to reporting from Central Oregon Daily
Unconfirmed reports indicated that Skinner’s actions to remove Bonner may have been related to a separate non-board investigation into reported ethics violations, but the Prineville Review has not been able to obtain any documents or information regarding those reported allegations.
It has not yet been determined if the hiring for Brumble process was a violation of any district policy or Oregon’s ethics laws, which had been alleged.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission had previously told the Prineville Review it had not received any formal ethics complaints regarding any Crook County School District officials, which it confirmed was still the case as of this afternoon.
The CCSD Board had also moved to hire an independent investigator over the matter involving Brumble, but according to the statements during the board’s previous meeting, a report on the investigation was not yet completed.
The second item on the agenda for tonight’s meeting also involved anticipated appointments to a board member application advisory committee. Each of the three remaining board members (Jennifer Knight, Scott Cooper, and Holiday) is set to appoint three individuals, comprising a total of nine members, who will review and provide a recommendation only to fill two seats made vacant by the resignations of Brumble as well as Cheyanne Edgerly.
The public meetings notice can be found by clicking here where links for remote attendance can be found. While most public bodies are required to provide for remote attendance by audio, a new Oregon law now requires school districts to provide video through remote attendance and upload a recording of the video online within seven days. The CCSD has generally made its meeting videos available through both remote attendance and uploaded online. The district’s staff has occasionally reported issues with forgetting to record, according to responses to this publication’s records requests.
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