Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Within days of joining the Omaha school board, Justin Wayne wanted to get a handle on the 8,100-employee district he was just elected to help oversee.
So he made a request to the Omaha Public Schools administration that he thought could be easily fulfilled: an organizational chart of the district's employees.
Soon after, the request created uneasiness with fellow board members. "My first controversial moment?!!!" board member Barbara Velázquez, the new head of the board's human resources committee, wrote in an email to the board's staff assistant.
Board President Sandy Jensen got involved and asked the advice of Superintendent John Mackiel.
A month later, Wayne got a surprise response: Request denied.
Allowing him to have a detailed organizational chart, Wayne was told, could encroach on Mackiel's authority. Beyond that, it wasn't worth staff time to accommodate his request. Instead, Wayne was given a general chart of departments.
Now, eight months after Wayne made his request, the issue has grown far beyond a breakdown of which employees work where.
A rift has opened within the school board over who holds the decision-making authority in the district. Questions are being raised, both inside and outside the district, about whether the superintendent has too much authority and whether the Omaha school board is providing meaningful oversight, if an organizational chart is off limits to the people elected to lead the district.
With student achievement test scores low and getting worse in some cases, and with Mackiel set to retire after this school year, the issue is expected to play into the hiring of the next superintendent.
Said Wayne: "To give up that much power, we have to make some fundamental changes. And now we have an opportunity to do that."
While Wayne and some outsiders say the board is restricted from doing its job, other board members and Mackiel say the division of authority is just fine as it is.
"The board is doing a very good job, and the superintendent was an excellent superintendent," said Mary Ellen Drickey, a longtime board member. "Any problem that arose was acted upon and resolved as quickly as possible."
Over the past decade, the board has moved from a group perceived as fractured to one that prides itself on cohesion. As Wayne emerges as a voice of dissent, some board members are pushing back — with "steel toe boots," in the case of one board member.
The internal dispute, which has been simmering for months, was documented in board emails that The World-Herald obtained through a public records request filed in May with the district.
Some outsiders say the board merely rubber-stamps administrators' proposals at a time when someone needs to ask tough questions. The newspaper spoke with many knowledgeable education advocates who have concerns about the school board but declined to be quoted for this story.
State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha said the board situation gives the appearance that the district lacks transparency and is not open to questions and ideas.
"It's alarming," Ashford said.
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Mackiel's contract is at the core of the dispute.
When Mackiel took the superintendent job in 1997, he ascended to a position that had been tugged by the interests of individual board members.
Mackiel, a career OPS employee, replaced Norbert Schuerman, whose tenure ended in controversy when board members said he wasn't responsive enough to their concerns, and his contract wasn't renewed.
Mackiel signed a contract that carried essentially the same job description as his predecessor.
The agreement gave him "complete freedom" to organize the administrative and supervisory staff. He controlled the administration of instruction and business affairs, as well as handled hiring decisions. According to the contract, any criticism, complaints or even suggestions presented to board members were to be referred to the superintendent.
In a break from Schuerman's contract, Mackiel agreed to consult with the school board on the selection, placement or transfer of administrators. Still, the contract said any decision on those matters was up to Mackiel.
But three years into his job, Mackiel resigned unexpectedly to accept the job of superintendent in Robbinsdale, Minn., amid concerns that some board members were overstepping their bounds. Mackiel agreed to remain in Omaha only after board members added new contract language.
The new language in his job responsibilities clause said: "Members of the board shall exercise only those responsibilities specified in the policies and regulations of the district. The board and the superintendent shall promptly meet to discuss any issues regarding board member responsibilities or the carrying out of those responsibilities."
Those board responsibilities, as outlined in separate school board policies, include setting broad policy for the district, passing a budget and appraising the schools' effectiveness.
Speaking in 2000 about the changes to his contract, Mackiel said: "This was necessary. Those paragraphs make a world of difference."
That whole outline of responsibility now is not only in Mackiel's contract. In 2008, the board voted unanimously to also include that language in the board policies, effectively keeping the same rules in place no matter who is superintendent.
Mackiel, who declined to be interviewed in person for this article, denies any imbalance of authority exists. In an email response to The World-Herald, Mackiel said the board's responsibilities and expectations of the superintendent have remained the same throughout his nearly 15-year tenure.
As for the contract language the board approved to keep him, Mackiel said the changes were simply a restatement that the board would follow its own policies.
The school board, he wrote, "provides the precise balance that is anticipated by superintendents and chief executive officers across this country."
"The policies of the Board of Education are strong and my contract simply states that the board agrees to follow them."
That overall delineation of authority is common in districts throughout Nebraska and the country.
To be sure, it is generally accepted practice that elected school board members set a district's overall direction and hire a superintendent to run operations.
"The board, in a very large sense, really has one employee — that's the superintendent," said Jim Luebbe, director of policy services for the Nebraska Association of School Boards. "Then it's up to the superintendent to organize the resources as best as possible to get the job done and report back to the board how that is going to happen."
Still, Mackiel's contract has some unusually strong wording compared with other superintendent contracts reviewed by The World-Herald.
In Lincoln, Superintendent Steve Joel's contract gives him authority over the same areas as Mackiel, but not "complete freedom" over administration. Joel's contract also says the superintendent works subject to the directives of the school board.
The contract of Millard Superintendent Keith Lutz outlines his duties more generally, leaving specifics to the school board's policies. His contract, however, says Lutz could be subject to the board's directives following an annual evaluation.
Mackiel's contract calls for the superintendent and school board to meet annually to set mutually agreed upon goals.
Wayne said he would oppose including the authority clause from Mackiel's contract in the next superintendent's agreement. And he wants it removed from the board's policies.
Wayne, a labor relations attorney with Union Pacific who represents north and northwest Omaha, said he is not trying to micromanage the district's operations. He said his job is to set policies "that make sure our students are successful."
But part of the board's discussions, Wayne said, need to involve personnel and the arrangement of district administration. If the district's policies and Mackiel's contract keep him from having an organizational chart, that's a problem, Wayne said.
"To not even be able to have a conversation about it, that's kind of crazy," he said.
Mackiel said the district has never maintained the kind of chart Wayne requested. When asked if creating that chart would be so difficult, Mackiel wrote that the issue "is whether such a chart is useful and serves the board well."
Said Wayne, "I'm still waiting for my org chart."
Former school board member Dick Galusha, whose active involvement played into the 2000 dispute, said that if board members aren't asking tough questions, they're not performing their jobs.
But board members who want to know what's going on in a school, he said, get labeled as micromanagers. When he served on the board, Galusha said, he believed board members should be in schools, asking questions and evaluating their performance.
Today, Galusha said, the school board has become a rubber stamp for the administration.
State Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh, who represents northwest Omaha, is considering legislation that would fundamentally change the board's composition. He said he believes the changes could help the board function more efficiently, although he says he's not acting in response to the dispute.
One possible proposal involves cutting the board to seven members from the current 12, which Lautenbaugh said is unwieldy.
The Lincoln school board has seven members. Other Douglas and Sarpy County school boards have six.
Lautenbaugh said he also is considering term limits and allowing some members to be elected from the community at-large, not strictly by district.
The Omaha school board still has five members who voted to hire Mackiel in 1997. Jensen was originally elected to the board in 1978 but left and was elected again in 1980, serving continuously since that time.
Kathleen McCallister, a former Omaha school board member who was known for being outspoken, said she supports the ideas Lautenbaugh is considering. At the same time, McCallister said she supports Mackiel.
Although she thought Wayne should operate with more finesse in his questions, McCallister said Wayne and the rest of the board should sit down together and work out the problems.
Under no circumstances, McCallister said, should Wayne be denied information. She said board members can ask tough questions and provide oversight without micromanaging.
"Supervising a superintendent is not a school board member's job," she said. "Supervising a district is."
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Four days after his first board meeting, on Jan. 7, Wayne sent in an email request for a detailed organizational chart of the district, asking for the number of staff members at the central office and charts for each school building.
The board's staff director, Jolene Pace, responded that fulfilling Wayne's request would take extensive staff time.
She cited a board policy restricting a board member from making requests that take more than one hour of staff time and requiring that lengthier requests come from the appropriate board committee.
Velázquez, the human resource committee chairwoman, wrote to Wayne in early February that his request to understand the details of OPS staffing "is appreciated." But she said board policy gives the superintendent responsibility for staffing decisions, including complete freedom over administrative and supervisory staff.
She wrote that Wayne's request "could supersede the recommendations and authority" of Mackiel and the resources to complete the research "may not be warranted."
Wayne instead received a general organizational chart breaking down the district's basic groups.
Jensen, the board's president, complimented Velázquez for how she handled Wayne's request. "I really like your response on the Org Chart," Jensen wrote in an email.
Jensen declined to be interviewed for this article.
Velázquez declined to be interviewed except to say that the one-hour policy is sound because it saves the district money. "You're talking about staff time," she said.
Just before that decision, Jensen scheduled a meeting with Wayne to discuss his duties as a board member and "concerns relating to board and political protocol."
On the day of that meeting, Feb. 9, Jensen and Shirley Tyree, the board's vice president, sent a letter asking the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission to investigate Wayne over conflict-of-interest allegations mostly connected to his role as president of the Midwest Trailblazers youth sports organization.
Jensen, in an email to Pace, said she and Elizabeth — presumably district attorney Elizabeth Eynon-Kokrda — "can handle the Accountability and Disclosure Commission." In a line that the district attempted to redact from the email given to the newspaper, Jensen wrote, "It is called 'big girl pants' and 'steel toe boots.'"
Wayne also has been criticized for talking with the news media. After a World-Herald article quoted Wayne about his vote against a northwest Omaha middle school construction project, board member Bambi Bartek emailed the board president that Wayne "broke the rules" and that someone should talk with him.
Jensen went to Mackiel: "advice before I put on my steel toe boots?"
But later, in an email on a separate topic, Tyree said board members are free to speak with the media if they choose, as long as they don't attempt to speak for the board.
More recently, Wayne asked to be on a five-member search subcommittee for the new superintendent but was not included.
One month after joining the board, emails indicate Wayne started previewing all his questions with Jensen and the board's staff assistant in advance of board meetings.
The emails provided to The World-Herald showed that Wayne has been the most active board member in asking questions over email.
When the budget came up, he offered long lists of questions, asking, for instance, about the possible cost savings of cutting printed school newsletters or eliminating a dean of students.
He has asked for the full list of the district's reading programs. He asked about construction projects, the magnet program at Northwest High, class sizes, travel spending, middle school alternative education, insurance, a golf program and the district's integration program.
"I have ideas, but I'm not 100 percent right," he said in an interview. "So that's why I start off with a question, instead of a solution."
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Wayne caps some of his questions with a "no" vote or no vote at all in board meetings.
Of the board's 271 votes since Wayne joined the board, he has voted "no" on 13 items. On top of that, he has passed on voting or abstained from votes on 42 items.
By comparison, the 11 other board members have voted "no" a combined four times and passed or abstained nine times over that time.
Wayne voted against the 2011-12 budget, against phasing out the district's GED program and against firing a teacher accused of taking two kids to fight outside of school.
Wayne said his goal is to improve student achievement and his positions are grounded in transparency and accountability.
"We've got to change the status quo," said Wayne, who won election by beating out a three-term incumbent. "I guess, I know change is uncomfortable. I know change is hard."
But Bartek said the school board needs to be cohesive.
"You have to work together for the good of the organization," she said.
Other board members say they have their own methods for getting information. Board members did not directly criticize Wayne, although they said the board's structure and its methods of operation are not a problem.
Drickey, who was first elected in 1996, said the board has put policies in place and revises them if necessary. Board members, she said, "are doing the best we can."
"(Wayne) has questions about everything every day going back to the whole school board's existence," Drickey said.
The school board typically holds its longest discussions at committee meetings held during the day. Often, board members not on a committee will attend to listen.
The full board meets twice a month. When it takes up issues for a vote, there is typically limited discussion.
Although Mackiel's contract says he has decision-making authority over hiring decisions, the board still routinely approves new hires.
Board member Marian Fey said she asks a lot of questions on the phone and prefers to air her questions ahead of a meeting.
"The goal of the board is not to ask 'Gotcha!' questions," said Fey, who called the school board highly functional.
Wayne said he considers asking questions part of his duty.
"We've got to find a way to move the district forward."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1128, jeff.robb@owh.com
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