In the next two weeks, Lebanon voters must decide whether or not Lebanon School Board members Josh Wineteer and Rick Alexander should be recalled. This election is about the poor conduct of two elected officials - not about the state of education in Lebanon, not about the academies at the high school and not about Superintendent Jim Robinson's personality.

Alexander and Wineteer should be removed.

Since being elected, the two have operated with an ends-justify-the-means-philosophy to carry out the only two agenda items they seem to care about: a single-minded desire to drive Robinson from the district and the promotion of Sand Ridge Charter School at the expense of the other eight public schools in the district.

From the number of agenda items - including those introduced with no notice on the agenda - that pass with majority vote after little or no public discussion, it is obvious there is a lot of decision making going on outside of the boardroom. That is an end run around transparency, accountability and the democratic process. If Alexander and Wineteer aren't legally violating Oregon's public meeting laws, they are certainly violating the spirit of openness under which they were enacted.

Adding agenda items at the board meeting robs community members of the opportunity for input on important decisions.

Federal and state laws leave precious little control of education in local hands these days. Through their actions, Wineteer and Alexander have consistently deprived parents of what little say they still have in their children's education.

Then there is their careless misuse of the facts.

In seeking to spin this election as a choice between himself and Robinson, Alexander has on several occasions stated the dropout is increasing at the high school. Actually, under Robinson, the dropout rate has fallen from over 11 percent in the 1997-98 school year to 4.6 percent in 2006-07. It can be better, but it hasn't gotten worse.

Whether Alexander is unaware of the improving dropout rate or is choosing to deliberately mislead voters, it does not speak well to his fitness to serve as the public voice of education in Lebanon.

As for Robinson, the board voted last spring not to extend his contract. He will be gone at the end of the 2009-10 school year. The board's recent unanimous vote to negotiate his resignation means perhaps his departure will be sooner.

Then Lebanon will begin the process of looking for a new superintendent. It's highly unlikely that most qualified candidates will apply to work under a board whose members waged a public vendetta against the last superintendent.

Students have endured too many years of trench warfare on the board. The recall is an opportunity for a clean sweep and a more productive future.