Valley Inquiry Charter School

Valley Enquiry Charter School has been taken over by a selfish school board and is going downhill. Last year, toward the end of the school year, the school board decided to fire all of the Salem-Keizer teachers in the school because they didn't want to be connected to Salem-Keizer anymore. They wanted to have charter teachers. They did this even though they can't afford to pay the teachers properly or give them proper insurance, and the majority of parents and staff disagreed. In fact, the original charter teachers quit when their Salem-Keizer counterparts were fired because of how they felt about the board and their decision. The board scrambled to quickly replace the entire staff over the summer, not leaving any planning time for the new teachers. Due to this, my son's 4th grade class has had endless problems, and his teacher is now out on permanent leave. So, we lost all our teachers, and the teachers we did get have been struggling, and the board has not once acknowledged that they have caused any problems or created any hurt.

Instead of taking any accountability or acknowledging the problems that they've caused, this board wants to push ahead with expanding into Middle School. You see, their kids are younger, so the board members who are parents won't be affected by any problems they cause in the middle school because they'll have time to work it out before their kids get there. That's why they won't wait or listen to concerns they care only for their own self interests.

You may not be aware of this, but in Oregon charter school boards are allowed to vote themselves into power. Other charter schools have seen how unfair this is and have included staff in the votes. But not this board. This board has only shown over and over again that they want to have absolute control and power, they do not care about anyone else's opinion, and they will do whatever they want regardless of how bad it is for the students and the school

We became involved in the school before it became Valley Inquiry. It was formally known as Baker Charter school. Before the move to the Hazlegreen locatation it was located at the Oregon school for the Deaf. When the school moved a couple of year's ago we lost our beloved principal & got stuck with a new one. Since the move things have never been the same. The whole dinamic has changed. It's hard to explain but the school just isn't that once laid back, small neighborly, close knit school where the principal stands out front every morning and greets the kid's and parent's by name with a smile on his face. The parent's would all be gathered out front waiting for our kid's to get out of school while younger siblings played in the yard as parent's visit. Now the school is not as open, friendly, or laid back as it once was. It's still a small school which is benefical and the school is IB focused and does great when teaching our kid's about the world around them but it's just not what it used to be. However someone coming into the school now not having had the great experiance of what it used to be may be pleased with how thing's are ran and the overall feeling of the school.
—Submitted by a parent-