EVERETT — The Everett School Board at a hastily scheduled meeting Tuesday night discussed the school district’s handling of an investigation into one of its principals.
The accusations against the principal were found to be baseless and unfounded, Superintendent Gary Cohn told the board.
An attorney conducted an investigation this summer after the district received anonymous letters accusing the principal of misconduct. The investigation ended in July, Cohn said.
Board member Jessica Olson criticized district officials for not letting most of the board know about the investigation. Olson is a frequent critic of the school district, saying it needs to be run with more transparency in the interests of taxpayers and voters.
“We’re talking about when we get the information,” Olson said. “We don’t get it, that’s the issue.”
Information being withheld from elected board members, she said, “becomes not a matter of an individual incident but more of a pattern, and more of an overall philosophy.”
Board President Ed Petersen said he was briefed after the investigation was concluded and did not feel the matter was something that needed to be shared with the entire board.
“That’s what I did,” he said. “I did it partly because I think an allegation takes on a life of its own once it gets out.”
Olson was alone in her criticism. The rest of the five-member board said they supported the decision to limit who knew about the investigation to Cohn and a few other district administrators.
“I trust the result of the investigation. I don’t feel I need to see it,” board member Carol Andrews said.
Most school board members learned of the district’s investigation last week after Cohn sent an e-mail saying the district had received a call from The Herald asking about it. The Herald received an anonymous letter last week that said the district was investigating. When a reporter called with questions, district spokeswoman Mary Waggoner said there was no investigation.
The next day, however, Cohn told the school board that an investigation had happened, found nothing and was being referred to police to investigate the letter-writer. The district also was working with an attorney to come up with a media strategy to protect the principal’s privacy.
On Tuesday, in an e-mail to district employees, Cohn stood by what Waggoner told the reporter, saying she answered a specific question regarding whether any administrators were currently being investigated.
But in the conversation last week, the reporter also read Waggoner the first line of the anonymous letter, which named the principal. Cohn did not address that in his Tuesday e-mail.
Everett police and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office both confirmed they have received complaints about whomever wrote the letters. Everett is not investigating.
The Sheriff’s Office took a complaint about someone being the subject of harassing communication and it will probably be forwarded to a detective for review, spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.
Olson and Jeff Russell were elected to the school board in 2009 by campaigning on platforms promising to bring more openness to the 18,400-student district following a secret investigation of a teacher conducted by the previous superintendent. That decision cost taxpayers more than $200,000 in legal fees and involved district officials lying about installing a camera to spy on the teacher’s classroom.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455; arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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