The First Nestucca Board Meetings I Ever Attended and My First Published Article About Superintendent Wharton

On October 16, 2023, the Superintendent of Nestucca Valley School District, Misty Wharton, made an unprecedented statement targeting an individual and reporter, saying, “So many of our issues as district are created by one person spreading misinformation.” This statement was about me, a wife, mother of four, homeschool mom. and reporter. To counter that this is a wild exaggeration against a citizen that has had no institutional power to make decisions in school policy or practice is an understatement. Any rational person understands that this could not possibly be true.

So what is true? Truth about human behavior and their statements can be difficult to establish. It is also never within human capacity to accurately identify the motives of individuals. However, truth claims documented by public statements, public documents, and eye witness testimony can give those in search of the truth a firm foundation of facts. The goal of the Wharton Files is to present the facts to the reader for them to make their own judgements. There will be many installments that will focus on the claims made by the allegations of Superintendent Wharton’s letter as shared in full here. All documentation that I possess to counter the claims will also be available. If I make a claim solely based on my testimony, I will disclose that as well, but those will be few if included at all. In other words, what is shared here will be what can be substantiated.

* The edits to this letter are as submitted to me by Superintendent Wharton upon request of a copy of her publicly read letter.

Letter Read by Superintendent Wharton on 10/23//23

Why am I bothering to counter the obvious lies spat out about me by Superintendent Wharton?

1. I have endeavored to publicly share the gospel of Christ with my neighbors. While He needs no defense, and is my defense, allowing such a blatant attack on my character to go unchallenged discredits my integrity. I do not expect my neighbors to believe my testimony of Christ if I lie in my other dealings.
2. My love for my neighbors compels me to challenge anyone who behaves tyrannically toward them. No one should be bullied by one of the highest tax- payer paid public officials in our county. If we have zero tolerance for school bullies than school administrators should be held to the same standard, and if we allow this behavior one time it will be repeated.
3. The citizens and parents of our district deserve the truth about the corruption of their school administration and the historical actions of the school board. I have a passion to be educated about local issues and share that knowledge. It is true that I have an approximate 7 years of experience with attending Nestucca Valley School Board meetings, requesting and reading their minutes, and asking questions. It is also true that I have made mistakes along the way. I am merely a regular citizen trying to be involved and inspire others to be involved, empowering them with essential tools and facts. My goals is not so much to convince people to think like me, but give them the full story beyond the district narrative and often silent or appeasing local media.

The Beginning: Why and When I Started Attending Board Meetings

Like many of us, 2016 was a political awakening for me. I learned that I could become an elected Republican PCP by adding my name to the ballot where there was no name and getting two other people to vote for me. But in truth my political bent can be traced back to my high school years as one of the youngest members of the school newspaper, The Nestuccian. In other words, I am a political nerd.

I have also been heavily involved with educational issues my entire life. From my grade school years of being sent to work with struggling readers (because I completed my class work quickly and couldn’t resist talking to other classmates) to homeschooling my own children and eventually earning my teaching degree, I care deeply about education.

Actually, my main mentor teacher for my licensure program was Misty Wharton. Misty was very liberal in allowing me to succeed and fail with her students. I hope we would both categorize our working relationship at that time as amicable and respectful. I have taught in various settings: Private tutoring, substitute teaching at Nestucca, local church AWANAS programs, and Bethel Christian School in my one year of residency in Lancaster, California. But the majority of my teaching experience has been homeschooling our four children (2 graduates) and our church’s Sunday School and Bible Clubs.

Nestucca Valley School District was also experiencing changes in the spring of 2017, for those who are math challenged that was 6.5 years ago (see the letter above). According to the minutes of Nestucca Valley School District (see below) sometime between January 2017 and February 2017, Misty Wharton became the Interim Superintendent after a quick succession of 3 superintendents within approximately 7 years.

I admit I found this interesting. To be fair, my interactions with the former administrator, David Phelps, were positive. He presented himself as professional, invested in the students, and very welcoming to homeschool families. I was unaware of the inner school agitations, and still do not quite understand them from that time period. So, like many, I found the sudden administration change strange.

Shortly, after this I saw the posting of the school board meeting on the high school door, and decided to attend the meeting. Curiosity, not an attempt to target Superintendent Wharton, is why I attended the first board meeting. What I witnessed was a board secretary attempting to run the meeting. The board secretary at the time was the HR manager, and I have no doubt that she had an overabundance of responsibilities. It had to have been a stressful situation for her. Superintendent Wharton did not attempt to intercede, and the board chair made some attempts to maintain order. To give an example of how badly organized the situation was here are few email exchanges with myself and the board secretary. The point of contention was giving me copies of the minutes, which were obviously not available online.

*Email threads can be confusing, but are left in tact and unedited here for transparency. For clarity, read them in backwards order.

What I learned from the entirety of these minutes is not important at this time, but the lesson I learned was to be perseverant. Governing bodies must adhere to Public Meeting Law, but if nodoby is watching they sometimes get sloppy. The truth is that I did not get the full packet of board minutes without calling the board chair, Annis Leslie. Annis insisted that all of the requested minutes be sent to me, and I am grateful for her commitment to transparency on this issue.

My First Published Article: A Community, Committed Superintendent

It was also during this time that a spent a short season as a reporter for the local news website, Tillamook County Pioneer. It was a very interesting and fun experience for me. My editor, Laura Swanson, was gracious and gave me a local story to cover for my first assignment: The hiring of Misty Wharton as full time Superintendent at Nestucca Valley School District. Given our history, I emailed her requesting an interview, and she responded that it would be easier for her to give a written response.

Here is her email response, and below that is my first article, published May 30, 2017 (less than 6.5 years ago) Providing the link is not changed here is the link to the article available on the Tillamook County Pioneer.

https://www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/nestucca-valley-school-districts-new-superintendent-carries-on-a-commitment-to-community/

*Emails are unedited for transparency. Read the emails in backwards order for clarity.

Superintendent Wharton’s Answers:

Text version of my article:

If you find where I “scrutinized” and “targeted” Superintendent Wharton let me know in the comments. Did I have personal concerns about her promotion. Yes. I had sat in her classroom. I ate lunch in the teacher’s lounge with her. I had heard statements and seen actions that I had serious ideological disagreement. But, I had for the most part seen her behave judiciously in her classroom, and believed we shared the vision of high education standards for the school district. The only lasting possible negative result against Superintendent Wharton from this article was I take responsibility for my work. Had she made choices that embraced parental rights, diversity of thought, fiscal responsibility, moral conduct and educational excellence I would have written further articles of support.

My goal in any article or post concerning Nestucca School District issues was never to attack individuals, but to bring up important issues that were unknown to the public. Tax payers and parents deserve accountability and educational excellence in their investment in public schools. Anything that diminishes the safety, academic rigor, or moral character of children in public schools should be publicly scrutinized in order to reset those foundational standards,

What was my first public criticism of her? That will be the subject of the next installment. Stay tuned.