EVERETT — The Everett School District is conducting a second investigation of a Cascade High School government teacher who is running for state representative.
Superintendent Gary Cohn said Tuesday he ordered the second probe after learning that Mike Wilson might have used a computer and other school resources for campaign-related work earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the district continues to investigate whether cross-country runners from Cascade High School in Everett and Jackson High School in Mill Creek were improperly enlisted by coaches to distribute campaign fliers for Wilson on Oct. 15.
Wilson, a Democrat, is competing against Republican Mark Harmsworth for an open state House seat in the 44th Legislative District. The district includes Snohomish, Lake Stevens and Mill Creek.
Harmsworth’s campaign released emails Monday in which Wilson corresponded with students, staff and a political consulting firm in February using a school computer. Wilson generated most of the emails through private email accounts accessed via school equipment.
Harmsworth obtained the emails from the school district through a public records request submitted by his campaign consultant, Chad Minnick.
Cohn said he knew about the request but did not learn about the content of the emails until Monday.
State law bars public employees from using public resources, including computers and printers, for campaign activity.
Cohn put Jeff Moore, the district’s executive director for finance and business services, and Randi Seaberg, the director of human resources, in charge of that investigation. Moore is an Everett City Council member and understands well the rules on keeping campaign work separate from the job, Cohn said.
In an interview, Wilson, who registered as a candidate on Jan. 28, admitted he might have inadvertently replied to one or two campaign-related emails on his work computer in the initial weeks of his campaign.
Said John Wyble of WinPower Strategies, who is Wilson’s campaign consultant: “We know that the school district will find a couple of mistakes at the beginning of the campaign, which we corrected.”
As for last week’s event involving cross-country runners, Wilson has said he believed the meet-up was not school-related.
That Wednesday, members of boys and girls teams gathered at McCollum Park, where they were invited to drop off literature at homes in various neighborhoods. Runners from Glacier Peak High School in the Snohomish School District also took part.
A parent contacted Cohn to complain, and several students told officials of their discomfort with the activity.
Catherine Matthews, director of curriculum and assessment for the Everett School District, is in charge of the investigation into the students’ participation, Cohn said.
Wilson has said that a coach, whom he would not name, organized the event. Wilson, a longtime teacher of government classes and a wrestling coach, said he arrived at the park believing students were there as volunteers.
Also Tuesday, the superintendent responded to an allegation by the Harmsworth campaign that the district was slow to fulfill the records request for Wilson’s emails because of politics. Until Monday, Cohn was listed on the candidate’s website, by name and occupation, as having endorsed Wilson.
Cohn said he endorsed Wilson as an private individual, not as the district superintendent. On Monday, after seeing his name, title and employer listed on Wilson’s campaign website, he asked Wilson to remove them.
Minnick, Harmsworth’s campaign consultant, submitted his records request June 5 for all emails from the day Wilson began working in the school district. That generated 14,474 documents, of which 1,625 were sent in 2014. That batch was made available Oct. 8 — two days after Minnick complained of a slow response.
“While I can appreciate on one level your delay-upon-delay-upon-delay to protect a member of your staff who is a public official running for the Legislature, it is not legal,” Minnick wrote to Jennifer Farmer, the district’s director of business services on Oct. 6.
“I will likely be contacting my open government attorney and the press about the illegal way you are withholding a government official’s emails (note that I have yet to see ANY) to protect his political campaign,” he wrote.
Cohn explained that each email needs to be read, and names of students or information identifying students redacted. Because of the volume, the district hired a paralegal to work solely on that records request, he said.
Through Tuesday, the paralegal had put in 166 hours of work, and the district had spent $14,095, spokeswoman Mary Waggoner said. The work isn’t finished, and more bills are anticipated, she said.
The records request for emails is not expected to be completely filled until later this month.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
