By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer
MUKILTEO — In a decision that disappoints many teachers and parents, the only principal Kamiak High School has ever had will be reassigned to the district office at the end of the school year.
Bill Sarvis was the planning principal at Kamiak during the school’s construction and has guided the school since it opened in 1993. Details of his new responsibilities have not been made final.
Sarvis declined to discuss the reassignment.
Gary Toothaker, the Mukilteo School District superintendent, made the decision.
"I support the fine job he has done as a founding principal at Kamiak High School," Toothaker said. "He established the foundation and he has done a very good job. In my view, it is ready for the next level of evolution to excellence."
"Some years you have to make difficult calls in terms of changing assignments for your principals," Toothaker said.
Part of the decision had to do with timing. Sarvis will be eligible to retire in the next few years before new state graduation requirements take effect. Toothaker said a new principal can learn from Sarvis in the interim.
"Having Bill in the school district to share his institutional knowledge during that transition will be invaluable to both the students and staff at Kamiak," he said.
Shirley Andrews, president of the Mukilteo Education Association, said many teachers are frustrated with the decision.
"His teachers are very disappointed," Andrews said. "They are very supportive of him. They feel he has been an excellent principal and a strong supporter of teachers."
"They were hoping he would be able to retire from the building," Andrews said.
"They felt as if they are doing a good job of making changes to meet these (state) requirements, and without his leadership they are going to have to start over," Andrews said.
Tim Jarboe, co-chairman of the Kamiak Parent Teacher Organization, said Sarvis has provided solid leadership. Jarboe has had two children graduate from Kamiak, and a third attends the school now.
"We are all very unhappy because we have a lot of respect for Bill," Jarboe said.
"The main thing I have heard … is, if Kamiak isn’t broken why is it being fixed," Jarboe said. "It is just humming along in most people’s estimation."
While Sarvis declined to discuss the reassignment, he did talk about the nine years of running the school from the first days of classes when construction was not complete and students and teachers alike would get lost.
Thirty-one of the original 60-member staff remain at the school.
"I think we were fortunate to get a good group of people," he said. "When I see how determined they are and working hard with kids I feel good about what we have done."
Sarvis, a New Jersey transplant, remembers the first students walking around the stately campus in awe.
"Right from the beginning, the biggest challenge was for Kamiak to develop its own identity and traditions," he said. "The greatest reward is to see us with that identify and traditions."
The school district will immediately begin a search for a new principal.
You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446
or send e-mail to stevick@heraldnet.com.
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