Eugene School District 4J Superintendent Andy Dey, shown here in a provided photo. The 4J school board recently voted not to renew Dey's contract.
Courtesy Eugene School District 4J
The Eugene School District 4J board voted Wednesday night not to renew the contract of Superintendent Andy Dey. The departure comes a month after Eugene Weekly broke the news that Dey was under investigation following complaints of discrimination and retaliation. Since then, the paper has reported on the board’s formal reprimand of Dey and a new allegation that Dey kissed a teacher without her consent.
Eugene Weekly Editor Camilla Mortensen joins us for an update on the board’s decision and what comes next for the district.
The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. One of Oregon’s largest school districts is going to have a new superintendent. The school board for Eugene’s 4J District voted on Wednesday to not renew the contract of Superintendent Andy Dey. This comes a month after Eugene Weekly broke the news that Dey was under investigation following complaints of discrimination and retaliation. Editor Camilla Mortensen joins us now for an update. Welcome back.
Camilla Mortensen: Thanks.
Miller: The last time we talked details about this investigation were pretty sketchy, publicly available details, I should say. What has come to light over the last month?
Mortensen: Since then, a couple of things have come to light. First of all, the [school board] did vote on the investigation and they found that he had retaliated against a middle school teacher. They did not uphold the discrimination portion of the complaint. The big thing though is that this whole time, they actually haven’t been saying that it’s superintendent Dey that has done this. That’s something that we’ve been pulling out with our reporting.
Miller: So even after voting this week to not renew his contract, they still have not publicly acknowledged that he was even under investigation?
Mortensen: Correct. They called it a mutually considered decision to separate, but they have not spoken about all the things going on behind it. So that was the retaliation investigation, and then later, there was a complaint filed by another teacher that he had kissed her on the cheek at a school event without her consent.
Miller: Is the board closed-lipped about this? It’s secrecy, is it standard? I mean, a regular level of behind closed doors conversations when employers are dealing with personnel matters or is it something different?
Mortensen: I mean, yes, in the sense that when you’re dealing with personnel matters. They want to sort of keep things under wraps until things are proven. At the same time, it’s been sort of surprising that there has not been acknowledgment that there is an investigation or even a statement that the school district takes complaints seriously or anything along those lines. They’ve really been very closed-minded about this.
Miller: It was striking that the announcement about the decision to not renew the contract didn’t come just from the board. It was a joint announcement by the board and at some point, soon-to-be former superintendent, even though later in that statement it says basically, we thank the superintendent for the work he’s done to help kids. It was a kind of combination joint statement-goodbye.
Mortensen: It was definitely a little odd. And we also asked to get the information about what the agreement actually is. For example, will 4J have to keep paying his $240,000 a year salary for the next year? What sort of stipulations are in there? And we did ask for that. We have not gotten that yet.
Miller: So it’s not clear how much longer Andy Dey is going to stay on the job.
Mortensen: Well, he’ll stay as superintendent until June 30th, but his contract doesn’t technically expire until June 2025. So the details of what happens from June 30th until June 2025 are still up in the air for us, what the district knows versus what we know.
Miller: How much money are we talking about here? Is it possible that he would be on the payroll for an extra year, although not serving as superintendent?
Mortensen: Yeah, that remains a possibility and his salary is $240,000. I think it comes with a couple of small things like a cell phone and then a larger thing - I think it’s $600 a month towards a car.
Miller: The larger context here is that the district is getting ready to ask voters to renew a five-year operating levy. Did people that you talk to think that this shake up in leadership could affect voters decisions?
Mortensen: I think there’s been a lot of concern about that and a lot of concern about how the district can sort of ask for money if folks don’t have faith in the leader, because the levy is looking to raise, I think it was $26 to $29 million a year. And they’ve been successful as levies in the past and done a lot of good with rebuilding schools and that type of thing. So it’s a huge, huge issue that’s lurking over them right now.
Miller: Camilla, thanks very much.
Mortensen: Thank you.
Miller: Camilla Mortensen is the editor of Eugene Weekly.
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