As parents and/or partners in the community, we are petitioning the Central School Board to not renegotiate or renew Superintendent Jennifer Kubista’s contract, she has failed to uphold her commitment to the Students she made to educate the WHOLE CHILD. 

Our district has moved in a direction that does not put the needs of children, staff, or the community at the center of its decisions. It is time for a course correction, and unfortunately that is unlikely to happen with Superintendent Kubista.

Part of this blame lies with the school board- the Central School Board has regretfully not done their job of overseeing the decisions made by the superintendent. The Board has instead chosen to give the Superintendent unilateral control, and has not corrected course when decisions negatively affect students or the community. 

The following are some of the concerns that have lead to this petition:

-March 2020, districts were given a date for when they should have some education available to students. Most districts in Oregon chose that date to begin some form of online or remote instruction. Central, instead, chose to interpret that as being the date that they needed to have a PLAN. As a result, kids in Central did not begin any real form of remote instruction until a month or more after most schools in Oregon began offering some. 

-When districts learned they could not open in the fall of 2020 to full in person, the RSSL (Ready School Safe Learner guidelines) offered ‘options’ for students who were unable to learn remotely, (for example, those without internet and those with disabilities) in the form of Limited In Person Instruction (LIPI). By December, Lake Oswego, Bend/LaPine and Salem/Keizer had more than 100 students attending school for several hours a day, using the LIPI model. Other districts around us also offered LIPI, including Albany, Sheridan, Philomath, and Dallas. Unfortunately, Central did not offer any in-person instruction until March 2021. The decision to not allow LIPI was devastating to children on IEP’s, as well as students without the internet. Many students on IEP’s went a full year without their IEPs being met, something that could open Central up to a lawsuit. Many parents have expressed that their pleas for help and support were completely ignored. 

-In December, the governor made an announcement that schools would no longer have to go by the metrics set forth for reopening, and could open. Unfortunately, our district chose to not allow students to begin attending school until mid-March. Older students did not begin until April.  Bend/LaPine began having all students back in school by mid-February, as did many other districts similar in size to ours. The reason offered for us not being able to begin in person instruction was fear of not being covered by insurance, should someone be able to prove they got Covid at school and then sue the school. However, this was addressed by the Oregon Legislature in December- which is why schools were then allowed to open. Yet that continued to be used as an excuse to deny our children in-person education. By then it was ABUNDANTLY clear that online learning was a disaster- students were failing classes, children’s mental and emotional health was greatly declining, and many students were emotionally checked out and depressed. But still, Superintendent Kubista made no strong push to reopen our schools, instead waiting until the Governor MANDATED that kids go back to school. 

-When the elementary school did open LIPI for all students, parents were told eventually more than 2 hours a day would be offered. However, that never came to fruition and our elementary schoolers were only allowed 8 hours of in-person instruction a week, for the remainder of the school year. In comparison, the districts around us, and many in the state, offered twice, sometimes three times as much. 

-Starting in April, high schoolers were only allowed 6 hours of in person instruction a week, some of the least amount of instruction in the state. When the guidelines changed from 6ft distance to 3ft, Central could have chosen to allow students to attend twice as many days, but chose not to. High schoolers were only provided 11 hours of ANY type of instruction the last 2 months of school, which was less than what was actually required by ODE. 

-Thankfully our schools are now open, but our community was recently told that the district would not allow school grounds to be used for sports or any other extracurricular activity by any outside entity. (As was also the case all of last year) This decision negatively impacts the kids in our district who have missed out on the most this past year. (Elementary schoolers) Thankfully, it seems as though the district may have chosen to reverse this decision, but only after significant community push back. Why was this decision made without consulting the school board or the community? 

The question that we began asking in April of 2020, is WHY is Superintendent Kubista continually making decisions that hurt our students, particularly when the districts in the surrounding communities are not making the same decisions?  Throughout this pandemic, some Oregon superintendents have looked for ways to help students achieve as much as possible. They got kids in for LIPI last fall, they pushed back against the Governor to allow schools to open, and when they did open, they asked the Governor to allow 3ft distance instead of 6, so more students could attend school in person. These are superintendents who recognized the GREAT detriments school closures were having on their students, who understood the science and data that clearly showed schools could open safely, and who tried everything in their power to do what was in the best interest of their students. Which was getting them back in school as soon as possible. We never saw this initiative from Superintendent Kubista. Instead, what we heard over and over were concerns of liability and lawsuits, as well as the concern Covid would spread in the community. While we understand these concerns, and appreciate her wanting the community to be safe, it was exceedingly frustrating that the communities around us chose to use a ‘cost-benefit analysis’ approach, while we did not. The risks to children NOT being in school far exceeded any benefit to keeping them out, something parents tried desperately to help the Superintendent see, but she never did.

We need a superintendent who will listen to the concerns of parents, who will focus on the ‘whole child,’ and who will be open and responsive to concerns of the school board and community. Central School Board members, we are asking you to not renew Superintendent Kubista’s contract. Our children deserve a superintendent who understands risks vs rewards, costs vs benefits and has the ability to weigh ALL outcomes when making decisions. Superintendent Kubista has unfortunately not demonstrated that ability. Our children deserve the best and brightest future that can be offered to them. Superintendent Kubista is not the person who will help them achieve that.

Respectfully, 

The Central Community