By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
The Lincoln County School District board says it is “extremely pleased” with the performance of superintendent Majalise Tolan who will complete her first year in the position in July.
The five-member board released a general statement about its evaluation during its regular monthly meeting last week in Waldport. The statement came after an executive (closed) meeting in which they discussed the evaluation among themselves and then went over it with Tolan.
The school board selected Tolan as superintendent last July, replacing Karen Gray, who retired after five years with the district.
It is Tolan’s 17th year with the district, including positions as an assistant principal, principal, senior administrator, and director of high school education and athletics. She is in the first year of a three-year contract that pays $178,500 a year, which the board will discuss extending for another year in June.
The superintendent is essentially the chief executive officer of one of Lincoln County’s largest organizations with 5,000 students and 600 employees and overseeing the superintendent is among the school board’s main duties. The district has a yearly general fund budget of $84 million, 10 elementary and middle/junior high schools, one online K-12 school and three public charter schools. School locations range from Waldport in the south, Eddyville, Siletz and Toledo in the east, through Newport and north to Lincoln City.
Board chair Peter Vince of Toledo said the evaluation was based on standards and goals in a 12-page document that Tolan and the board agreed upon last August. These included detailed and measurable steps regarding academic achievement, student engagement, community outreach, and fully implementing the board’s five-year strategic plan.
The board’s statement said the evaluation process included updates in October and February and a self-evaluation by the superintendent, also in February.
Tolan was evaluated in the various categories ranging from 1 to 4, with four meaning “accomplished”, three meaning “effective”, two meaning “developing” and one meaning “needs improvement.”
The board’s statement said it rated Tolan’s performance as “effective” in leadership and communication with staff and the community, and her work on financial management as “accomplished.”
“Superintendent Tolan has taken the Lincoln County School District to the next step in increasing student achievement,” Vince said in the statement, adding that the board “speaks with one voice.”
“Our ninth-grade on-track to graduation percentages remain high, as do our graduation rates,” the statement said. “Student attendance is improving districtwide. She continues to build on the professional development for staff that was put in place over the last several years.”
The statement praised Tolan for working to develop a protocol for increasing teacher effectiveness and student achievement, finding additional resources to focus on elementary reading, and maintaining the “high level” of fiscal management the district has developed the last several years.
“The LCSD board expresses its support and gratitude to Dr. Tolan for her dedication and leadership,” the statement concluded.
In a statement to YachatsNews, Tolan said her year has been full of learning about all the district’s schools, its partners and the community and praised the district’s “very dynamic and dedicated team of educators …”
“Moving forward, we want to continue the aligned work we have started in instructional practices, language acquisition, behavior supports, and professional learning communities through ongoing coaching and feedback at all levels of the organization,” she said. “I am appreciative of the board’s ongoing feedback and communication with me, as it helps me learn and grow.”
Tolan faces one outside issue, however.
She is in settlement talks with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission over a citizen’s complaint filed last summer that she used her extensive travel on district business to help promote a book she co-authored in 2023. The eight-member commission voted last October to proceed to a full investigation. A full discussion and possible decision was expected to be on its March agenda, but Tolan, her lawyer and the commission are now negotiating a settlement, agency staff said last week.