A local school board member sparked a monthslong grievance process with the teachers union last fall after he asked a high school principal to have a failing grade removed from his son’s transcript.

Nori Juba has been on the Bend-La Pine Schools board since 2005. His son, last year a student at Summit High School, withdrew from a second-semester biology course in April and instead completed an online biology course. What happened next created the rift.

According to documents and interviews, Juba asked then-Principal Lynn Baker to alter his son’s grade from an F, which he received for dropping the class, to a W for withdrawal, which has no negative consequence. Juba said he knew his position on the school board might complicate the situation, but believes he followed district protocol and was within his rights as a parent.

District rules dictate that a student can drop a class within the first 10 class sessions. Dropping the class after 10 class sessions results in an F that is factored into the student’s GPA. According to district policy, a principal can change the F to a W on a case-by-case basis, “based on extenuating circumstances.”

Juba said that after withdrawing from the course, his son earned a B in an online 12-week biology course in fewer than six weeks.

“Considering that he had succeeded in another Bend-La Pine program and did a lot of extra work to get a decent grade, I went to the principal and asked for the F to be removed and to have a W be put in its place,” Juba said.

Last school year, about 100 withdrawals were given out to students.

“The majority are due to medical conditions,” said Bend-La Pine Schools spokeswoman Julianne Repman. “We did have one contested last year and one contested the year before.”

‘Legitimate concern’

In the case involving Juba’s son, biology teacher Callie Pfister took issue with what she believed was an improper grade change.

Bend Education Association President Mark Molner took up the cause, and Pfister, through the union, filed a formal grievance. Pfister declined to comment Tuesday on the issue.

“We certainly wouldn’t have brought a grievance forward if we thought we didn’t have a legitimate concern that the grading of students could come under undue influences that ought not be involved in the grading of a student,” Molner said.

In Bend-La Pine Schools, the grievance process has five levels, beginning with an informal grievance that a teacher takes to an immediate supervisor or principal and ending with an appeal to arbitrators with the Oregon Employment Relations Board.

Fewer than one grievance each year reaches the superintendent, Repman said, noting there are no special rules for a grievance involving a school board member. “All participants are treated equally throughout the process,” she said.

Pfister filed a formal grievance in writing, through her union representative, on Aug. 10. The grievance alleged that Baker had broken policy in changing the boy’s grade, failing to review the grade change with Pfister and improperly removing the F from his transcript.

In a June 14 decision, Baker wrote that the extenuating circumstances were the student’s high test grades; that the student had a D, not an F, when he dropped the course; that he was successful in the online course; that the student had decided to attend Redmond Proficiency Academy in the coming school year; that he was considered for an education modification plan; and that “it doesn’t make sense to punish his behaviors with an ‘F’ when he demonstrated on assessments a B-level proficiency in the subject matter both in your class and the online course.”

Jay Mathisen, the assistant superintendent for human resources, agreed with Baker.

Superintendent’s ruling

Pfister and the union then appealed the grievance to the superintendent’s office.

Former Deputy Superintendent John Rexford heard the appeal in October. During the hearing, Molner argued the union’s collective bargaining agreement indicated no one should ever be able to change a student grade without teacher permission. Rexford denied the grievance, ruling the principal had the administrative authority to change the transcript and did not violate either the teacher contract or school policy.

Instead of appealing the grievance to the school board, Molner and the school district reached an agreement clarifying the policy language. “Extenuating circumstances” allowing for a W in lieu of an F include issues like medical problems, a death in the family and incarceration. Any circumstances not detailed in the list can be appealed by the teacher.

Molner is pleased with the tweaking of the policy.

“The agreement was that the policy be changed so when there was this kind of parent requesting the change from a withdrawal F to a withdrawal, the previous policy said they’re all Fs and then the principal had the right to change it,” he said. “Basically this allowed for more teacher input into that and a more transparent process into how that change was made.”

Juba said he knew that as a school board member, the grade change request might reflect poorly on him. But, he said, his son had successfully completed the online course and shown his proficiency. Juba also said this was the first time he’d advocated for either of his children.

He said he spoke to Superintendent Ron Wilkinson to “mitigate the perception” that he was trying to use his role on the school board to help his child.

“I was aware it could become politically controversial, but just from a common-sense standpoint, there was absolutely no reason for me or any other parent not to say, ‘My son demonstrated he could do the work, showed a mastery of proficiency, he got a good grade another way,’ ” he said. “I just saw no reason not to do it.”

Union’s move

Juba believes the grievance was the result of animosity — toward his son, toward the former principal and, specifically, toward him.

He thinks the move was an attempt by the union to rework contract language in teachers’ favor, and that he and his son were targeted by local and state union personnel who are angry at various, unrelated stances he’s taken about teachers’ unions and pay in the past.

“I do think it was quite personal,” he said. “I think it was ‘Let’s teach a board member a lesson,’ was part of the issue.”

Molner said he asked for legal help from the state union, the Oregon Education Association.

“We laid out our case and said we felt it was important in terms of academic integrity for teachers and the district, and they thought it would be a worthwhile situation for them to support so they supplied us with legal services,” he said. “They didn’t have a dog in the fight, per se.”

But, he said, the grievance wasn’t brought to the superintendent because of Juba’s role on the school board.

“Next month it could have been a different kind of compromising issue or complicating issue,” he said.

A teacher should have the right and responsibility to determine a student’s grade, Molner said. “It wasn’t about the reasons for why the grade was changed from a withdrawal F to a withdrawal,” he said. “It wasn’t about the reasons that precipitated the grade change. It was about that it could be done at all.”