Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, March 19, 2009

Everett School District sued for records

The teachers union hopes a judge will force the district to provide withheld information.

By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer

 EVERETT -- The teachers union hopes a judge will force the Everett School District to provide greater access to its records, including those that may detail the role attorneys played before a spy camera was secretly installed in a teacher's classroom in 2007.

The Everett Education Association on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Snohomish County Superior Court alleging the district has violated the Washington Public Records Act by withholding information and documents the union began seeking last May.

"The information received to date has been extensively redacted and hundreds of documents were totally denied," said Kim Mead, president of the 1,200-member teachers union.

District officials said they had not seen a copy of the complaint Wednesday, but said no state laws were broken in redacting the records.

"The district always responds to all public records questions consistently and in the spirit and according to the letter of the law," said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman.

Union leaders have been trying to get to the bottom of a district decision that resulted in a secret surveillance camera being placed in the ceiling of a Cascade High School teacher's classroom in the spring of 2007. Kay Powers was suspended and then fired for helping students publish an underground student newspaper with district equipment.

She later was reinstated and given back pay after reaching a settlement with the district. Shortly before the agreement, union leaders said they planned to produce an expert to testify that he believed a camera had been placed in Powers' classroom. District officials initially denied, but later acknowledged, a camera was used.

Among other things, the complaint seeks more information about a Jan. 11, 2007, meeting between former Superintendent Carol Whitehead, then deputy superintendent Karst Brandsma and attorney Valerie Hughes of Perkins Coie in Seattle. During that meeting, "data and strategy" about the investigation of the underground newspaper, the Free Stehekin, was discussed, according to district records.

Union officials said the lawsuit is less about the spy camera than it is about how the district interprets what should be provided under public records laws.

"In some ways, we feel we are defending this community's right to know," said Mike Wartelle, a regional union representative for the Washington Education Association. "It isn't just the surveillance. It is a broader issue."

District officials forwarded questions to their attorney.

"We are disappointed and surprised that the association has filed suit without first discussing the matter with us," Hughes said.

"We have responded to several requests for records from the association over the last year," Hughes said. "We have responded to each of those requests according to the letter and spirit of the law."

Hughes' law firm was paid nearly $170,000 for legal work related to the Powers case. District officials said she advised them to release heavily redacted billing statements when The Herald filed records requests seeking detail about those and other legal expenses. More complete records, still with numerous redactions, were released after the newspaper's lawyers became involved.

Wartelle said the union has been examining district practices between 2001 and 2008 and believes the district needs to be more forthcoming in the information it provides.

"To my knowledge, we have never litigated on public records requests at all," Wartelle said.



Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA