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Board member Nicole De Graff resigned after the board decided to dismiss a complaint reviewed in executive session and refused to hear any future complaints related to the “underlying complaint.” She voted against the action and announced her resignation during a Tuesday meeting.
Another Springfield Public Schools board member is resigning, this time due to disagreement with fellow board members over governance.
Nicole De Graff announced her resignation, effective June 30, to the board and acting superintendent Jodi O’Mara in a special meeting Tuesday, May 26, and in an email the same day.
“My work on the board has become untenable,” De Graff said in the email.
She is the second Springfield school board member to resign this year. Former board chair Heather Quaas-Annsa resigned Feb. 5 citing threats to her and her family’s safety and “persistent misinformation.”
De Graff’s tenure on the board will end a year earlier than her term’s June 2027 end date. The district has not yet announced a plan for selecting a replacement. Neither board Chair Jonathan Light nor district communications director Brian Richardson immediately responded to a request for comment.
The district and board are currently in the time-consuming process of hiring an interim superintendent.
Board’s dismissal of complaints
In an emailed statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, De Graff said “I can no longer effectively serve in an environment where I have ongoing concerns about governance practices, compliance with public meetings laws and decisions that I believe place the district at unnecessary risk.”
Board members met in executive session Tuesday to discuss information protected by attorney-client privilege. Executive sessions are closed to the public. Members of the media can attend some executive sessions, but are legally barred from reporting what’s said in them.
Board members returned to a public session to vote on how to handle two complaints discussed during the closed session, deciding to dismiss — or take no action — on both with mixed votes.
The board also decided to stop hearing additional complaints related to the initial complaint.
“Any further complaints related to the underlying complaint will no longer be processed by the board,” said board member Ken Kohl, reading from a statement.
Kohl, Light and board member Bob Brew voted to dismiss both complaints. Vice Chair Amber Langworthy abstained from the first vote due to a conflict of interest and voted to dismiss the second complaint. De Graff voted against dismissing both complaints.
“My view of risk and precedence is different, so I will be voting no,” she said during the vote.
In her statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, De Graff emphasized her disagreement with the board’s decision to not hear future complaints related to the first complaint.
The board has voted to take no action on numerous complaints in the past three months and De Graff has been the lone dissenting vote three times. De Graff voted against dismissing a complaint heard in executive session April 13, citing “a different interpretation of governance and risk.” In an April 27 special meeting, Langworthy abstained from voting on a complaint, citing a conflict of interest, and De Graff voted against dismissing it while Light, Kohl and Brew voted to dismiss it, mirroring this week’s vote.
A year of leadership clashes
De Graff’s decision to leave Springfield schools is the latest in a string of leadership shakeups at the district and board level this school year.
Springfield lost four school leaders between former Superintendent Todd Hamilton, former Assistant Superintendent David Collins, Quaas-Annsa and De Graff, all of whom resigned and publicly disagreed with or disapproved of Light.
Hamilton and Collins both had well-documented clashes with Light, submitting formal complaints against him starting in August and naming him and other board members in a threatened lawsuit in December, alleging a continuing pattern of retaliation that began when Light returned to the board in 2021.
The board also voted in November to remove Light and Kohl from board leadership after district leaders complained that the two were overstepping their roles. They also censured Light for his decision to contact the state about the status of a curriculum investigation and for leaking the superintendent’s complaint against him to the public.
The board reinstated Light as board chair in February, following Quaas-Annsa’s resignation.
De Graff recently attempted to introduce a change to policy to make it harder for a board member to be eligible for a leadership role after being censured or previously removed from a leadership role. No other board members approved the change.
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