REDMOND — Redmond School District board Vice Chairwoman Cathy Miller said she doesn’t believe it’s necessary to change the district’s policy to prevent anyone with an arrest record from working for the district.

Her comments, made Wednesday night at the board’s meeting, were in response to a question from the public concerning former Redmond High School principal Brian Lemos, who was fired last year. Dennis Dorgan had asked the board at its Jan. 4 meeting what changes are being made in policy and operations to prevent a recurrence, according to the minutes.

“I feel that there is no need to change current policy,” Miller said Wednesday, adding that she reached that conclusion after consulting with three of the school district’s attorneys.

Lemos was fired Oct. 12, 2011, for what the district described only as misconduct and performance issues.

Further concerns and questions came from the public after it emerged that Lemos has an arrest record with convictions for driving under the influence and assault.

In 2000, Lemos’ teaching license was suspended for 60 days and he received four years’ probation while working at the Tillamook School District. That came following an arrest for domestic harassment. At the time, the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission also considered his prior arrest record, which happened in the 1990s, when making that decision.

Redmond school officials have maintained that student safety was never jeopardized, but have declined to give specifics about Lemos’ firing.

Miller contended that not hiring someone with an arrest record potentially violates federal and state civil rights laws, saying the attorneys agreed on this.

She also said that while hiring decisions are the responsibility of the superintendent, they also require board approval.

“There were actually six people helping to make this decision,” she said, never mentioning Lemos by name.

Lemos worked at the Crook County School District from 2004 to 2009, when he went to Redmond to be principal of M.A. Lynch Elementary School. He became principal of Redmond High in 2010.

At the Jan. 4 meeting, Miller said her own decision to hire Lemos as principal of Redmond High was based on the former superintendent’s recommendation and information showing he had a clean record for the past eight years and four years of strong performance in his last school district, according to the meeting minutes.

When Lemos was hired, current Superintendent Shay Mikalson wasn’t yet overseeing the district; Vickie Fleming was superintendent at the time.

Furthermore, Miller said that changing a policy would raise questions. Those include whether it would apply to volunteers as well as staff, or if a volunteer’s 20-year-old shoplifting conviction would disqualify them from helping in their child’s classroom.

Board Chairman Jim Erickson said Wednesday that he agreed with the legal conclusion Miller outlined, but added that it doesn’t remove public perceptions.

“It’s troublesome, probably, to the community sometimes, but it was a definitive process,” he said.

The district’s concerns about Lemos and his professional behavior didn’t end after firing him.

On Oct. 20, Mikalson filed a complaint with the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission, according to Melody Hanson, the commission’s director of professional practices.

Because that matter is still under investigation, Hanson said she couldn’t talk about the nature of the district’s report about Lemos.

If no merit is found, it will remain confidential, she said. The commission could look at the case as early as its meeting in late April.

Efforts to reach Lemos and his attorney, Daniel Snyder, on Thursday were unsuccessful.

If the commission believes there’s an issue of misconduct, Lemos would have the opportunity for a hearing before an administrative law judge to appeal that.

With no final decision made yet concerning the complaint, Lemos’ credentials as an educator remain in place and he can work in the public school system, Hanson said.

Lemos has filed a series of tort claims against the district, which are a procedural precursor showing an intent to later sue. Lemos alleges racial discrimination. He also alleges that a district employee filed a false claim with the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission about his use of Vicodin at work.

“We gave this person a chance, and when performance and misconduct issues were identified recently, Superintendent Mikalson took action,” Miller said on Jan. 4, according to the meeting minutes. “Because there is still litigation pending, that is the extent of what I can say.”