Embattled Spokeswoman, Battle Ground Schools Part Company

By Isolde Raftery, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

Mar. 30–Kelly O’Brien, Battle Ground Public School’s spokeswoman for the last decade, has signed a settlement that terminates her contract with the district.

O’Brien will receive $38,000 — $11,000 for work completed and $27,000 as part of a settlement signed Friday. The agreement demands she make no disparaging remarks about the district and says: “Various concerns and changed circumstances have resulted in the parties desiring to terminate their relationship…”

O’Brien was a sometimes controversial figure in Battle Ground, where she served as a sort of press secretary, often speaking for Superintendent Shonny Bria. The two said they had a close working relationship, and Bria said they spent nearly every night, from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., talking on the phone about district matters.

This year, O’Brien abruptly moved out of the state, saying she had been receiving threats, though she said she didn’t know from whom.

As a full-time consultant for the district, O’Brien netted $130,000 from September 2006 to September 2007. A public records request revealed that the district doesn’t have her resume on file, though Bria said last week that she doesn’t believe that O’Brien has a college degree.

O’Brien, who has told reporters that she is “Harvard-educated,” refused to answer whether or where she went to college.

“The job speaks for itself,” she said. “I believe that I am and was qualified.”

O’Brien started as an active member of the Maple Grove parent teacher association. After Bria was hired as superintendent in 1998, she solidified her most recent position.

O’Brien wouldn’t say why the district sought to end her consulting contract, but said she had considered “claims against the district” and opted for the settlement instead. She said those claims would come to light when former secretary Julie Short’s case becomes public.

Short, a district-paid employee who worked for O’Brien, resigned at a school board meeting on March 20. At that board meeting, two board members voted against ending O’Brien’s contract, which would have expired in June.

Board member Cecil Schlect said: “If Kelly did something wrong, if she breached her contract, we owe her nothing. If the district is forcing her out, we need to get to the bottom of why.”

Board member Rick Kent read from a prepared statement.

“I believe that actions have been taken to undermine her efforts to carry out her contractual obligations,” Kent said. “I first heard rumors about intimidation and harassment while I was running for the school board in 1997 and in the last year or so, I have become directly aware of instances of this type of behavior.”

Consultant pay

O’Brien’s contract stipulates that “in no event” should the district pay her company, KOK Consulting, more than $78,000 for the 2006-2007 year. Invoices obtained by The Columbian, however, show that KOK Consulting received $130,000 from September 2006 to September 2007. Of that amount, invoices show that $25,680 went for clerical work. O’Brien said that she paid subcontractors with that money.

“Someone could look at that and say, ‘$100,000 is a lot of money.’ And it is a lot of money,” O’Brien said Friday evening. “But that doesn’t include health care or cell phone or mileage. It’s not such a cushy deal when you start looking at all that. A lot of people would be filling that role somewhere else. It would take three or four people.”

On nearly all O’Brien’s invoices from 2006 to 2008, Superintendent Bria signed off because the amounts exceeded the contractual amount.

On one invoice, a district payroll employee wrote, “Shonny, Please approve increase to budget for clerical portion — there is no money left in that budget.” Bria signed the invoice.

On Friday, O’Brien said, “A lot of people would get defensive about this, but I’m not worried about people knowing how much the district paid me. I know how hard I worked for that money.”

By contrast, Vancouver Public School’s public information officer earned about $79,000 in 2006, including benefits.

Special meetings

Board members Kent and Schlect were also frustrated because the special board meeting called to terminate O’Brien’s contract was announced 24 hours in advance.

“Some of us have jobs, and though my boss is flexible, I’d like a little more notice,” Schlect said. “I haven’t missed a meeting since I’ve been on the board. I think they owed it to me to give me more flexibility.”

By law, public agencies must notify the public of emergency meetings 24 hours in advance. In the last two weeks, Battle Ground has held two such meetings. One held Wednesday concerned high school travel requests.

Kent said he is bothered that agendas have been changed at the beginning of board meetings. The law allows it, but Kent believes that some changes were inappropriate.

“That occurred a couple meetings ago, and I voted no,” Kent said. “I didn’t think there was a need for an executive session. They wouldn’t even tell me the nature of it.”

He said that when he pressed school officials, they said it was to discuss a personnel issue.

“I’m not getting a sense that we’re as open as we should be,” Kent said.

Board president Fred Striker, who calls board meetings, did not return a reporter’s phone call Friday.

Isolde Raftery can be reached at 360-735-4546 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.

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