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The former superintendent of Blachly School District padded his $154,000 board-approved annual salary with an unauthorized raise, records show.
A former rural Lane County school superintendent agreed to pay a $4,000 penalty to settle an ethics case after state investigators found he steered a school contract to his wife without advertising it and raised his salary without the board’s approval, state records show.
Adam Watkins, former superintendent of Blachly School District, about 33 miles northwest of Eugene, contacted his wife, Stephanie Watkins, about a role as an independent contractor as an online counselor, a state ethics investigation found. She was paid $88,700 for her work from 2021 to 2024 in a role that was not advertised to the public.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission approved an agreement March 7 with Watkins for him to pay a $4,000 fine to resolve the case. The commission determined Watkins faced conflicts of interest when he approved 22 payments for her work across the three-year period. His wife’s role was not publicly advertised and she was the only person contacted, the report said.
The school district runs one school, Triangle Lake Charter School, which has an enrollment of about 400 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Efforts to reach Watkins were unsuccessful. The commission’s report shows Watkins defended himself, saying he didn’t directly supervise his wife and sent an email with a disclosure to the board. But the school was unable to provide such an email, telling the state it was unable to retrieve it because of a new software system.
Separately, state ethics investigators found Watkins increased his own compensation by $57,930 from 2021 to 2024 without the board’s approval for grant administration duties. The school board, which started to investigate Watkins in 2024, had not approved the salary increase, the report said.
“By making changes to his own compensation, Mr. Watkins took actions in his official capacity to obtain a financial benefit for himself without declaring a conflict of interest,” the report said.
School district records show his board-approved base annual salary was $154,000. His contract also had perks that included a 6% contribution to the state’s pension system. He also received another $9,000 annually through a $750 monthly stipend for travel, cellphone use and availability to work on evenings and weekends.
That report said the Blachly School District’s investigation found Watkins made unauthorized purchases, received unauthorized reimbursements, and compensated himself for grant-related duties without authorization.
Watkins, who became the district’s superintendent in 2020, resigned in October 2024 when the investigation was underway, board minutes show.
In a statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, school board chairman Derek Pennel declined to say what steps, if any, the district will take to recover the money.
“The Blachly District has responded to and partnered with multiple government enforcement agencies related to the issues arising from the OGEC investigation of Mr. Watkins,” Pennel said in an email. “At this time, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on any specific ongoing investigation, enforcement action, or recovery activity that the District is responding to or participating in.”
Watkins, a licensed Oregon educator since 2001, also faced public scrutiny when he was an administrator at the Salem-Keizer School District. In 2016, the district reported to the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission that Watkins may have had inappropriate interactions with subordinate employees that violated sexual harassment policies.
In 2017, he resigned from that district. The commission, which licenses and disciplines Oregon educators, issued a public reprimand in the case in 2019, state records show.
