COOS BAY - Accusations of illegal conduct and emotional audience reactions colored a night of change for the South Coast Education Service District on Tuesday.

At its monthly meeting, the district's Board of Directors voted 4-3 to terminate the contract of Superintendent Rick Howell, effective at the end of the school year. Chairman Tom Giles was joined by Liz Cohen, LeeAnn MacDonald and Vicki Goodrich in affirming the termination. Steve Bowman, Myrna Barber and Maria Wartnick cast the nays.

In March, the board considered extending Howell's contract, but the same voting blocs that resulted in his termination coalesced to quell that motion. Had it passed, the extension would have kept Howell in his current role through June 2010.

Chairman Tom Giles said he worked with Howell over the past three and a half weeks to fashion the language of a “mutual separation agreement.”

Giles wouldn't say if he approached Howell with the idea of such an agreement or if Howell came to him - and Howell declined to comment on the record. When asked why he undertook the task, Giles again declined to comment.

Before the vote was taken Tuesday night, several board members argued that the March vote against a contract extension was not the same thing as a vote to terminate. Wartnick suggested there was a misunderstanding in what that vote actually had constituted. But Bowman accused Giles of initiating an illegal act by drawing up the contract without formal board approval.

“I went through board records prior to the meeting and I couldn't find anywhere where the board had made a decision to terminate Rick's contract,” Bowman said. “You can only do what the board has agreed upon, so it was either an action (Giles) took on his own or an agreement took place in an illegal meeting.”

Bowman said he will contact the state Attorney General's office to learn what action can be taken against Tuesday's decision.

In a press release from the ESD, Giles said, “We have decided the ESD should seek new leadership, and Rick has expressed an interest to retire,” but when he praised Howell during the meeting, several audience members responded with jeers and cat calls.

“It's like talking out of both sides of your mouth,” said Tim Groce, of Coos Bay, whose wife, Ginny, works at ESD. Groce condemned the behavior of the board at Tuesday's meeting.

“You can't compliment someone and then vote to terminate him. It was a joke,” he said.

“I have never heard a complaint from an employee at ESD and when I have worked with ESD, we have never had an issue,” he said. “There are a lot of unhappy people today who are losing a person they could turn to,” Groce added.

For his part, Howell expressed no qualms about the contract.

“It's a termination that leads to my retirement and that's OK,” he read from a prepared speech. “I expect that some board members voted for this agreement because they wanted a change in leadership.”

Terms of the agreement provide a severance package including a $125,000 lump sum and continued health and dental insurance until Howell, who is 58, is eligible for Medicare insurance. The majority offered little in the way of explanation for removing Howell, who will complete his 10th year with the district this year.

After Howell completed his remarks at the meeting, the 50-member audience, composed primarily of staff, stood and applauded the soon-to-be departed administrator.

Bowman clearly spoke for many of them when he commended Howell's work.

“I've worked with a lot of administrators and I know how hard Rick works for our district,” he said. “I would say he is amongst the top two or three ESD superintendents in the state.”

The board opted to pursue hiring an interim superintendent with the assistance of Oregon School Boards Association.