Mid-Valley Media has trouble keeping their political bias out of their news articles.

They have run a series of articles against gubernatorial candidate Marc Thielman, taking readers down a path of innuendos and suggestions that aren’t factual, and made sure readers know Oregon is a very-blue Democrat state.

They paint Marc Thielman, former Alsea School District Superintendent as ruthless, accusing him of playing theatrics by keeping Alsea school district open allowing students to legally unmask using CDC guidelines and the Oregon and U.S. Constitution.

Mid-Valley Media states Thielman’s resignation was justice for his unmasking stance and suggests it put the district at risk despite his district having no COVID cases traced back to the school as a source. This was an eye-opener to parents and other districts followed his lead.

Thielman’s decision to resign as Superintendent of Alsea was based on not being able to give 100 percent to being superintendent while in the midst of a gubernatorial campaign. He has always had support from the school board and staff in the 11 years he has been Alsea superintendent. The school board’s decision to keep schools open while others were closing didn’t sit well with a few employees who felt threatened by not enforcing the mandates. One employee had health issues and chose a severance package to honor her many years of service, but has now changed her mind with her complaint. Meanwhile, Alsea was able to keep their whole staff because Thielman accepted religious and medical exemptions in support of personal medical freedom.

Thielman had one focus in mind when he kept his schools open during the 2020-2021 school year, and that was to educate kids. The penalty for ignoring mandates was withholding of $275,000 of ESSR III federal funds to deal with COVID shortages and closure. They were not state school funds. His district grew 500 percent during this time, which brought in more sustainable tax revenue than the ESSR III funds. Unused amounts of ESSR funds will expire.

Alsea has two online high school programs. One is credit recovery and the online graduation rates are lower than inhouse. Last year’s inhouse graduation rate was 90 percent, above the state rate of 80.6 percent. Oregon Department of Education doesn’t allow Alsea to separate it's data by the two programs, so it lists a lower rate, where larger districts will create an alternative school to push their failing students into so they can report an inflated rate.

The editorials on Thielman typifies the media’s war on families and personal liberties that Marc Thielman and others are fighting against. Thielman was criticized for showing parents how to apply for a medical exemption, but they didn’t say it was for 504 and IEP qualified disabled students.

He was on national news discussing how his own disabled daughter struggled with masking.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Mid-Valley Media dug up an Elvis impersonation video over 12 years ago when Yoncalla raised a complaint from a disgruntled employee who had been fired for mismanagement of school funds. Another administrator was to be the Elvis figure for a school assembly, but he got sick, and Thielman being who he is as a servant leader, stepped in and wore the Elvis outfit that was too small for him. Two entities investigated and found the complaint didn’t have merit.

Parents want a governor that will put education back under local control and fight for their constitutional rights. It will take a strong person to sort through the quagmire left from the pandemic.

Parents, guardians, and the public have come to realize there has been an erosion of parental rights, graduation standards, and educational options within the public sector.

Thielman is only the first target of the media. The question is, how much will we allow the media to influence our choice.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-02-28 12:50:32

Last Update: 2022-02-28 13:54:02