The Willamette Education Service District Board will hire an independent auditor after public outrage about a secret settlement agreement the district reached with an administrator accused of multiple counts of misconduct.

Board members met with the district's lawyer in an executive session, which is closed to the public, for nearly three hours Wednesday morning to ask questions about the deal.

In a public meeting after the executive session, board members said they were satisfied that Superintendent Maureen Casey had done the right thing in agreeing to the settlement with former migrant-education director Nicolasa Mohs.

"I have total confidence in our legal team, our administrative team," board member Dora Velasco said. "I do feel there needs to be some type of damage control."

The audit will be limited to a review of the policies and procedures that allowed Mohs' conduct to go unchecked for more than a year. It will not delve into the specifics of her case.

"We're quite concerned about how the public views the people on the ground doing the work," said Tom Motko, a field representative with the Oregon School Employees Association.

The committee would be made up of three employees, three members chosen by the board and three parent or citizen members. It would oversee management of the agency.

WESD board members said that the idea has merit but that they probably won't consider it until any investigations into the matter are complete.

Last week, the Statesman Journal reported that an internal investigation into Mohs documented multiple incidents of misconduct during her two-year tenure and recommended that she be fired.

Casey then signed a settlement agreement with Mohs that hired her back as an independent consultant at her previous salary of $7,299 per month, provided an additional amount of $1,155 per month through June and provided $11,000 toward her attorney fees.

Casey also agreed to give Mohs a good job recommendation and agreed not to report the investigation's findings to the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission or the Government Standards and Practices Commission.

WESD board members were not told of the investigation results or the settlement agreement until the Statesman Journal requested copies of the documents.

The House Interim Education Committee will review the case Dec. 15. Chairwoman Linda Flores has asked representatives of the state Department of Education, Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, Government Standards and Practices Commission, secretary of state's office and attorney general's office to attend the meeting. The Education Department also is working with the state Department of Justice to complete its own investigation.

This is cache, read story here