A stay-at-home mom has launched a grass-roots group calling for a public apology for the physical altercation among three Everett School Board members following its Aug. 23 meeting.
“There’s no accountability,” said Kim Guymon, who founded the Everett School Board Project. “I want to see five people say we are sorry; we’ve decided we’re going to work together, be civil and mature, and all opinions will be equally valued.”
Guymon, who has two children in the Everett School District, launched the group with a Facebook page Aug. 25.
“This isn’t really about me at all,” Guymon said. “It’s about the taxpayers becoming the sixth director. Most of the other five (school board members) aren’t listening to us … We’re trying to insert our voice back in.”
Since the launch of the group last month, 93 people have joined.
Guymon is encouraging people to turn out for the school board’s next meeting on Tuesday. School board meetings are held at the Educational Service Center, 4730 Colby Ave., and begin at 4:30 p.m.
“Short term, we would like some apologies to the public,” she said. “I’m not saying who’s right … But it was very unprofessional. It was embarrassing for our district.”
The scuffle broke out among three of the school board’s five members in a closed door session following its Aug. 23 meeting.
A tense debate began over school board member Jessica Olson’s refusal to turn off a video camera recording the meeting. She felt some of the discussion in the closed-door session should have occurred in a public meeting. Other board members disagreed.
Moments later, a brief brawl took place between Olson, board member Kristie Dutton and Ed Petersen, board president.
A similar fight would not have been allowed in the workplace, Guymon said.
Guymon said her concerns with the school board arose long before the recent fracas.
She was troubled earlier this year by a proposed real estate deal in which the school district would have shared space in a new administration building with a proposed Washington State University branch campus.
“That’s when it started to make me mad,” Guymon said. “There didn’t seem to be a lot of information forthcoming.”
Guymon said Olson “took a lot of flak” from her four fellow board members for publicly disclosing information about the proposed deal on her Facebook page.
Olson clashed with fellow board members over what could be publicly disclosed about the deal.
Guymon said she also was unhappy with the timing of July 5 vote to approve a new $23 million administration building. “They knew a lot of people would be out of town” because of the July 4th holiday, Guymon said.
“It seemed as if they were making it secret by making it inconvenient to attend,” she added. “That’s kind of how it started. I woke up and started to pay attention.”
Guymon said the school board is composed of five equally elected board members. Part of the debate that occurred during the board’s Aug. 23 closed door meeting was centered on whether Olson could present a minority opinion on the performance review of Superintendent Gary Cohn. Olson wanted the conversation about how to conduct the review to occur in public.
“I can’t imagine getting a job evaluation where no negative comments were allowed,” Guymon said. “These are five equally elected (school board) directors. Everybody’s opinion matters.”
The Everett School Board Project was not founded as a group to support Olson, she said.
Among those who have joined the group are three people who unsuccessfully ran in the primary election this year for an open school board seat: Rodman Reynolds, Pamela Key and Casey MacPherson.
Mary Ann Elbert, who is facing Pam LeSesne in November’s general election, said she joined the group so she could listen to what people have to say. Guymon said she has sent an invitation to LeSesne to join, too.
Guymon said she recognizes that Olson can be abrasive and “some in my group think she may have pushed the envelope a little too far.”
However, Guymon said she does agree with Olson trying to take what she calls the secrecy out of board actions.
Guymon said she would like to see a change in the timing of school board meetings, which now begin at 4:30 p.m. That often makes it hard for parents to attend, as they often have conflicts with commuting home from work or shuttling kids to after-school events, she said.
And the school board should begin videotaping its meetings, Guymon said. Audio recordings of the meetings currently are posted on the school district website, although there’s generally a lag of several weeks before they’re available.
Board members have said they’re worried about installing a video system in the current administration building that may be out of date when the new administration building opens in 2013.
The board is “stonewalling and making excuses,” on requests for video recording meetings, Guymon said.
“We need to see what’s going on,” she said. “We’re footing the bill.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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