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Portland Public Schools board member Greg Belisle this month accepted a job with Multnomah County helping to run SUN Community Schools. The new $64,000-per-year position as a senior program specialist comes with challenges for Belisle, who first won election to the board in 2011.
PPS doesn't allow employees of the district to serve on the school board. That's a clear conflict of interest. But it does allow employees of PPS contractors—such as Multnomah County—to serve.
Belisle is familiar with this situation. He previously worked for another PPS contractor as a SUN program manager at Impact NW, a Portland nonprofit. He managed 10 sites for SUN—or Schools Uniting Neighborhoods.
Between 2009 and 2013, PPS paid Impact NW an average of $360,000 each year.
County spokesman Dave Austin says Belisle filed a conflict of interest form with the county disclosing his role on the school board. He said Belisle's position at the school district doesn't pose a conflict for the county, because Belisle won't be making any decisions about PPS.
Belisle didn't response to requests for an interview Monday or Tuesday.
Jon Isaacs, a spokesman for PPS, says Belisle has gone beyond what is legally required of him to deal with any appearances of a conflict in the past. Isaacs says Belisle has, for example, declined to vote on items before the board that deal with his past employer.
Last week, the Portland School Board, including Belisle, approved a spending plan that included funding to "work with Resolutions NW and Multnomah County to provide restorative justice training to SUN school managers and SUN culturally specific contractors to support restorative practices in target schools."
Christine Miles, a spokeswoman for the district, says the funding will flow to Resolutions NW not Multnomah County.
WWeek 2015