Murmurs: Why Don't You Go Outside And Play?

By WW Editorial Staff
  1. It’s a nightmare scenario for a principal: learning after the fact your school has hosted a registered sex offender. But that’s what happened to Jefferson High School principal Margaret Calvert. In an April 17 letter to parents, obtained by WW, Calvert said she learned the Jefferson Dancers had invited Bruce Smith to work with students three times in January. Smith, a former dance teacher at Da Vinci Arts Middle School in Portland, pleaded guilty in 2002 to third-degree sex abuse, a misdemeanor. At the time, The Oregonian reported the case involved a Da Vinci eighth-grader. (A year later, Smith was convicted of the same crime in a separate case.) He resigned his teaching job. “We have worked with Security Services and Portland police to ensure Mr. Smith will not be allowed to return to Jefferson, and staff are aware of this prohibition,” Calvert wrote to parents. Christine Miles, a spokeswoman for Portland Public Schools, says school guests or visitors who will be supervised by PPS teachers or employees don’t have to go through background checks.
  1. Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) has made the opening chess move in what will be a series of decisions and announcements about 2016 campaigns for statewide offices. Devlin, co-chairman of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee and a lawmaker since 1996, had considered running for state treasurer or secretary of state. Devlin now tells WW he won’t run for treasurer. That’s good news for state Rep. Tobias Read (D-Beaverton), who wants that job. It’s bad news for Sen. Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland) and House Majority Leader Val Hoyle (D-Eugene), both of whose secretary of state hopes dim if Devlin decides to run.
  1. As reported in Murmurs last week, Gail Shibley, chief of staff to Mayor Charlie Hales, is leaving City Hall. On June 16, the mayor’s office finally confirmed it. The Oregon Youth Authority, which runs the state’s juvenile justice system, has hired Shibley as its assistant director for business services. Last week, Hales spokesman Dana Haynes flatly denied Shibley was leaving. Hales has been under pressure from supporters to replace Shibley ahead of his 2016 re-election campaign. Her probable replacement: Hales staffer Josh Alpert.
  1. The Oregon State Police spent 814.5 hours trying to make a criminal case out of the leak of former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s emails to WW in February. The district attorneys for Marion and Yamhill counties announced June 3 they would not charge the leaker, interim state data chief Michael Rodgers, with a crime (“The Whistle-Blower,” WW, May 27, 2015.) That announcement came two days after Gov. Kate Brown told WW she didn’t think Rodgers should face criminal charges. Rodgers remains on paid leave from his job.

WWeek 2015

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