Village School director resigns.

Byline: ANNE WILLIAMS The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 1/20/03): The Village School Board conflicted with Executive Director Sally Bigongiari over personnel policy, not her authority to run the charter school day-to-day, board member Joshua Daniels said. A quote from Daniels in Saturday's paper incorrectly implied otherwise.

Three years after launching Eugene's first charter school, Sally Bigongiari has given up her post as The Village School's executive director, as well as her seat on its board.

The resignation, effective Jan. 1, stemmed from a conflict with the school's board of directors over Bigongiari's authority on a personnel issue. The decision to step down was hers, board member Joshua Daniels said.

"The overall point of conflict was over the policy and authority of a founder to make decisions and run the school day to day," Daniels said.

Bigongiari's departure came as a shock to many of the school's parents and faculty, said teacher Andy Traisman, who is doubling as an administrative liaison to faculty until a new director is hired. School resumed Monday after a three-week winter break.

"I had no idea that this was possible, that this change would take place," Traisman said. "It was really not on anybody's radar screen. It came as quite a surprise."

Bigongiari said she'd hoped to remain with the school, but that her position there became untenable.

"It's a real crossroads for the school," she said. "But I think it's important for people to bear in mind that change in new schools, any new school, is an inevitability."

The Village School was a long-held dream for Bigongiari and her husband, Matthew Bigongiari, who also resigned from the school's board. He is still a seventh-grade teacher at the school, however, and the couple's three children are still students there.

The Bigongiaris began thinking about starting a charter school in the mid-1990s when they lived in California, where they were involved with a private Waldorf school. They liked the idea of creating more educational choices within the publicly funded school system, and in 1999, the Oregon Legislature paved the way by passing a Charter School Law.

Charter schools are publicly funded, receiving at least 80 percent of the state's per-pupil allocation. The sponsoring school district keeps the remainder. They are largely independent, however, with their own governing boards, and are free of many of the rules that apply to regular public schools.

Borrowing from the Waldorf educational model, the Bigongiaris designed The Village School as an alternative elementary school that would offer an integrated, hands-on curriculum emphasizing movement and the arts. It opened its doors at the Easter Seals building in south Eugene in August of 2000, with Sally Bigongiari as executive director.

The approach struck a chord with local parents, many of whom had previously home-schooled their children. With a beginning enrollment of 37 in grades kindergarten through 2 three years ago, the school - housed since last August in a wing of the old Willard Elementary School at 2855 Lincoln St. - now serves 155 students up to seventh grade.

But the path to success was bumpy at the start. Sally Bigongiari was a frequent - and sometimes fiery - speaker before the Eugene School Board in the fall of 1999, advocating for a less restrictive policy for start-up charter schools and later, for her own school. The board initially rejected The Village School's charter bid because of disagreements over funding and several policy waivers the school had requested.

The school became the first in the state to appeal to the state Board of Education, which called for mediation. The school board eventually relented on some of the conditions that had stalled negotiations and granted the school its charter in June of 2000.

Bigongiari remained critical of district policy, particularly the requirement that charter schools pay rent for district facilities. But by and large, the school's relationship with the district since that time has been amicable and smooth.

The internal discord at The Village School had been building since September. That's when Bigongiari placed one of the school's founding teachers on probation for what Bigongiari described as ongoing performance issues.

After a grievance hearing in December, the eight-member board rescinded the probation.

Bigongiari believes the board overstepped its bounds to a degree that made it impossible for her to stay on as the school's administrator.

"I think it was a very important and necessary action," she said of the probation. "It was an action completely supported by the school's bylaws, which say that part of the executive director's job is to do everything having to do with firing and hiring and everything in between, including disciplinary action."

But Daniels said the rules were murky. He said the board was not trying to weigh in on the merits of the case, but simply to establish a clear and defensible policy for the administrator to follow.

"The concern of the board was that the policy protect the school," he said.

He said the board offered to work with Bigongiari to set up such a policy, but that she was not interested.

Bigongiari said the board has refused to make itself accountable in regard to the division of responsibilities.

"It's an awfully important part of a nonprofit charter school to make sure that the board is doing the board's job and the director is doing the director's job," she said.

Joni Gilles, who coordinates charter school programs for the Oregon Department of Education, said conflicts between founders or directors and boards are not uncommon among charter schools nationally. In fact, she said, the "governance" issue is probably the third greatest challenge, next to finances and facilities.

Village School parents and staff members said the situation has been painful and divisive, but that they're trying to move ahead.

"I feel good about our direction, I feel good about our board, I feel really good about the school," said Brian Ellis, whose daughter, Grace, is in fifth grade. "I feel really excited about having Sally as a parent."

He believes most people have avoided taking sides.

"Basically, what the majority of people feel is, let's be there for our kids," he said.

Traisman said he doesn't believe the school will lose any staff as a result of the turmoil, certainly not this year.

"I think the faculty here is very concerned with looking at whatever is happening now as an opportunity to learn something about ourselves," he said. "If anything, something like this is an opportunity to look at who are we, what are we doing here and what can we do to get better."

Daniels said the board remains committed to the Bigongiaris' vision and philosophy, and he acknowledged their talent and contributions.

"To a person, the board is strongly committed to continuing the mission and the programs and growing the school in ways that are appropriate to the foundational work that they've done," he said.

Bigongiari said she hopes that's true.

"I think that that really depends upon the board," she said. "The current board is saying that that is their intention, but the question is how they will go about it."

As for her immediate plans, Bigongiari, 42, said she's taking a rest after three demanding years.

"My first plan is to be a parent and be at home with my children - three is kind of a lot," she said. "I am extremely happy to be home with my family. The time commitment and the energy that it took for me to be part of the school was huge. In addition to that, I have a degree in fine arts, so now that my kids are in school I'm really interested in revisiting my career as an artist."

She also hopes to keep her hand in the charter school movement, perhaps doing some consulting for start-ups.

"I feel it's been a real gift to be able to understand public education," she said, noting that she frequently gets calls from would-be charter school operators. "I do feel like I've learned an awful lot, and that I could help others."

CAPTION(S):

Anil Oommen runs an exercise with his first-grade students involving categorizing sea shells at The Village School in south Eugene.