After a long argument over format, people who stayed met in small groups to suggest solutions

The Lebanon School District and the high school need to do a better job of communicating with parents was the consensus of those who didn't angrily storm out of a public meeting last week. The meeting was held Sept. 10 in the LHS auditorium to discuss a "math emergency."

Superintendent Jim Robinson declared an academic emergency on Aug. 26 because of a combination of low math scores on state assessments and parental concern over the number students failing math at the high school.

When the meeting facilitator, retired educator Dick Behn, refused to alter the meeting format from a presentation by the LHS administration and small group work sessions afterward to allow direct questions from parents, two-thirds of the audience walked out.

"This is not what the community thought they were here for," said Linn County Commissioner candidate Will Tucker. "They didn't expect to be handled. They expected to be listened to and respected."

Tucker attended the meeting at the request of Laura Baker, who rallied Lebanon parents to demand immediate action be taken after learning that 67 percent of the students taking Algebra 1 at LHS last spring received a 'D' or lower.

Baker presented a list of 12 questions about the LHS math program to the Lebanon School Board on Sept. 2, and many came to Wednesday's meeting expecting to hear answers from principal

Mark Finch.

Behn and Finch spent much of the first hour deflecting demands from an angry audience wanting a public forum. As frustration mounted, Tucker strode to the front of the auditorium and announced he had been asked by a few parents to take over as facilitator. Behn refused to concede the floor to the candidate for county commissioner.

Despite an assurance from Finch that there is a "sense of urgency" to improve math scores, parents demanding immediate action to help students were not happy when told no decisions would be made that night.

"We haven't heard any timeline on when things are going to be put in place," Baker said. "Give me a (expletive) timeline to get me off your back."

Lebanon High School instructional coach Jodi Seward spoke out in favor of the small group sessions, saying it gave people afraid to speak in front of a crowd a more comfortable setting to discuss their concerns.

Four members of the school board - Rick Alexander, Josh Wineteer, Russ McCune and Debi Shimmin - attended the meeting at the high school as audience members.

Alexander declared Wednesday's meeting "dysfunctional" after it became obvious Behn and Finch were not going to accept questions from the public.

"What happened here tonight missed the perfect opportunity to listen to the community," Alexander said. "You're alienating the people who came here with your attitude of, 'We set the agenda. You follow or you go home.'"

The audience roundly derided Finch's defense of teachers not grading homework assignments in response to a question shouted from a parent. LHS math teacher Tim Helland's explanation of why he personally doesn't afford much weight to homework assignments didn't do much to reassure parents.

"Please don't tell me I'm staying up till 11 o'clock helping my son with his homework and it's not even being graded," Lebanon parent Steve Wallace said.

Only about two-dozen of the nearly 90 people who signed into the meeting stayed to participate in group sessions with the school administrators, teachers and district staff who had volunteered to be part of the discussions.

Before adjourning, a spokesperson from each group gave a brief description of concerns raised and possible solutions.

Better communication between the high school and parents and the need to get more community involvement in the education process were the common themes for each group.

Tre Kennedy, a parent and president of the Lebanon Citizens Alliance for a Responsible Education System (CARES), suggested Lebanon send a delegation to Forest Grove High School to observe the system administrators there put in place four years ago, after which the number of students passing the state assessment more than doubled.

In the 2003-04 school year, about thirty-two percent of Lebanon and Forest Grove 10th-graders met state math standards. Last year, 73 percent of Forest Grove sophomores met or exceeded state standards, compared to 35 percent at LHS.

Oregon City, which modeled its math program after Forest Grove, saw the number of high school students meeting state standards rise from 45 percent in 2005-06 to 68 percent last year.

On Friday, Finch said he has been in contact with school administrators at Forest Grove to arrange a meeting, but because so many other school districts are clamoring to get a first hand look at how Forest Grove produced such dramatic testing gains, a Lebanon delegation may go to Oregon City instead.

The next public meeting about the LHS math program is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 24 with no time or place yet determined.

Those wishing to subscribe to an electronic newsletter announcing meeting times and other information about the LHS math program may contact Brian Bray by e-mail at brian_bray@lebanon.k12.or.us