Over 500 Idaho Falls parents, students, educators and community members have signed a petition as of Tuesday morning calling on the school board to hold a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Karla LaOrange.

Confidence in district leadership has “steadily eroded” in recent years, according to the petition on Change.org. The petition’s signers cited a lack of transparency, leadership that instills fear, a continued loss of experienced educators and a refusal to create a cohesive environment for negotiations for teacher contracts.

As EdNews reported last week, contract negotiations between the Idaho Falls Education Association and the district have broken down and gone to mediation three years in a row — ever since LaOrange was appointed superintendent.

The petition asks trustees to place a vote of no confidence on a board meeting agenda and publicly address the concerns.

“The purpose of this petition is to hold district leadership accountable and restore trust between the administration, educators, families, students, and the community,” the petition states.

Trustees at 4 p.m. on Tuesday will conduct a board workshop that includes an agenda item for the superintendent’s evaluation. The board clerk told EdNews the meeting will not be livestreamed or recorded and is a training session with no action.

Board Chair Hillary Radcliffe did not respond to an interview request last week or to another request Tuesday morning.

LaOrange told EdNews in an interview last week that she thought contract negotiations this year were positive and professional. When asked if it was a coincidence that negotiations have gone to mediation every year of her tenure as superintendent, she downplayed her role in the process and said trustees directed the district to enter mediation last year and again this year.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding that the superintendent totally controls negotiations,” LaOrange said. “And I mean this not in Idaho Falls but in general, and the agreement in the end is signed by the board chair and the Idaho Falls Education Association board chair.”

Lead union negotiator Meggan Stansbury said moving to mediation is new under LaOrange’s leadership, but the board has also played a role in the decision.

“I do think that they were behind the big push to mediation, and to her credit, I do think that the superintendent tried really hard this year to make things civil at the table, and I think that it was going really well,” Stansbury said. “I’m just not really sure where all of that went the second that we went to mediation.”

Stansbury said she is moving to Wyoming and is not returning to teach at Idaho Falls.

“This was my last year in the district, and a big portion of that is due to the board and the superintendent,” she said.