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Residents file Marysville School Board recall petition

Published 9:00 pm Friday, December 5, 2003

By Eric Stevick / Herald Writer

MARYSVILLE — Three Marysville School District residents filed recall petitions Friday, hoping to oust school board members Helen Mount and Ron Young.

The recall campaign is the latest development in an acrimonious series of events within the 11,000-student district, which endured the longest teachers strike in state history this fall.

Signing the recall petitions were Marysville residents Lisa Griffith, Shannon Bartlett and Deborah Vincelette. Doug Wartelle, an Everett attorney, filed the paperwork on their behalf with the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office.

In a prepared statement, they said the decision to seek the recall was made "after significant consideration of the many decisions" Mount and Young have made since they were elected two years ago.

Their petition outlined a series of school board decisions, including a controversial Nov. 17 vote to extend superintendent Linda Whitehead’s contract a third year. It will be up to a judge to decide if any of the issues raised constitute misfeasance, malfeasance or a violation of the school board members’ oaths of office.

The state’s recall law describes malfeasance as "an unlawful act" and misfeasance as "performance of duty in an improper manner."

"Our goal is to ensure that the citizens of the Marysville School District are given a fair opportunity to address these and other issues," recall backers said in a prepared statement.

Mount and Young said they don’t believe they have done anything wrong.

"It looks to me like more of the same stuff, different day," Mount said of the issues raised in the recall petitions.

Young said he has tried to do what he believes is right, even if it means taking an unpopular stand against the 650-member teachers union in an effort to spend more resources on student achievement.

"If I am being recalled because I have stood up for what is best for students, bring it on," Young said.

Both continued to defend Whitehead, whose qualifications were questioned several times in the recall petitions.

The petitions allege that Young and Mount kept Whitehead as superintendent "despite knowledge that she is unqualified to carry out the duties of such (a) position" and that they took other actions that hurt the district. It cited as examples:

  • A state auditor’s report for the 2001-02 school year, which had 10 specific findings of weakness in the district’s financial management practices.

  • A district decision to open schools for a February makeup day after teachers participated in a statewide rally in Olympia one month earlier. The district scheduled the makeup day for Feb. 14, which was originally was not a school day. Most teachers did not go to school that day, and the district hired substitutes and people to come in as "entertainers," the recall papers said. An arbiter ruled in September that the district had to pay the teachers for the lost day of pay. Most students stayed home, and those who attended received "inferior and substandard instruction and supervision," they said.

  • An enrollment loss since Whitehead was appointed in 2001 and a resulting loss of revenues. The district is now facing a $2 million shortfall in the $82.25 million budget it adopted in August, largely caused by plummeting enrollment during the strike.

  • A no-confidence vote in Whitehead by Marysville Education Association members two years ago.

  • A poll commissioned by the district in 2002, which found that many residents either didn’t know Whitehead, had no opinion or had an unfavorable impression.

  • The decision to extend Whitehead’s contract for a third year. They also alleged that Young and Mount "knowingly and willfully conspired to mislead" the public by releasing an agenda at noon Nov. 17 that didn’t identify as an agenda item the proposed extension of Whitehead’s contract. A revised agenda later in the day included a reference to the contract extension, they said.

  • An assertion from the union made in court papers during a strike injunction hearing that the district failed to bargain in good faith with the teachers union from April through October. It blamed the district for engaging in "surface bargaining" that significantly contributed to the strike and damaged the district’s relationship with the union, teachers and other employees and students.

    Mount said she feels she is on solid legal ground. The school board’s decisions, while not always popular, were made after consulting with district attorneys and with students in mind, she said.

    She said the district has recognized shortcomings in its finance department and has made changes to improve them.

    "I am not real concerned," Mount said of the recall campaign. "If I get recalled, I get recalled. I’m in this for the students in the Marysville School District."

    The school board fell under heavy criticism this fall during the 49-day strike, and incumbents Mark Johnson, Erik Olson and Cary Peterson lost their re-election bids Nov. 4.

    Recall campaigns are rare in Washington. Successful ones involve both the court system and the voting booth. Typically, they take several months.

    The last successful recall in Snohomish County was more than a decade ago.

    Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.

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