The Philomath School District reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring federal immigration officials follow proper protocol when attempting to conduct operations on school property.
During the Jan. 8 School Board meeting, Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday reviewed a resolution that had been approved in January 2025 outlining the rights of undocumented students and protocols for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since the resolution remains in effect, another vote on the matter was not needed by the board but Halliday said she wanted to put it on the agenda “to continue to raise awareness” and to represent a commitment that the school district will “do the best we can to support our families and kids.”
If ICE personnel show up at the school, the district has outlined how staff should handle the situation.
“If somebody tries to breach a school, (Student Services Director) Kelsey (Greydanus) and I are the two that will come and make sure they’ve got the appropriate credentials and appropriate need to be able to have access,” Halliday said, adding that the district must also be given the opportunity to connect with legal counsel. “I think it does an excellent job of articulating what the limits are and our mechanisms for upholding those limits.”
Halliday said immigration officers can get into the building only under exceptional circumstances, such as an immediate public safety threat or if they have a valid search warrant, subpoena or court order.
“The whole point of this is to make sure they follow the right protocol,” she said. “If they’re waiting at bus stops, which is some of the things that other communities are seeing, there’s not a lot that you can do within that but we want to support in whatever way we can.”
Halliday mentioned that she had connected with Philomath Police to learn what local authorities may or may not be able to do if ICE shows up on campus.
“I had a chance to meet with the police chief who basically said unless there’s fisticuffs or people getting in harm’s way, there’s not a lot that they can do in terms of being able to intervene,” Halliday told board members. “It was nice to feel like we could engage in those conversations even though they weren’t the answers we wanted.”
The School Board unanimously approved the resolution a year ago as the federal government began its transition to a new administration.
The school district does not inquire about immigration status when students enroll and even if the child’s status would become known, the information would not voluntarily be given to ICE, the district said at the time.
The school district had actually talked about such protocols back in 2016-17 but apparently nothing was adopted. No issues have occurred in the years since but Halliday wanted the formality of a resolution.