Controversies a hot topic for Everett School Board candidates

Published 6:06 pm Saturday, October 16, 2010

EVERETT — One candidate says the Everett School Board has made too many important decisions “behind a cloak of secrecy.”

Another says that’s not fair, that the issues are too complex to be easily explained to people in a “sound bite or even a newspaper article.”

Two positions are up for the Everett School Board and with them the potential for a great amount of change on a board that has faced criticism after the district secretly recorded a teacher in her classroom, piled up more than $200,000 in lawyer fees related to legal battles over student newspapers, and hired a new superintendent without giving the community a chance to comment on any finalists.

For sure, Sue Cooper, the longest-serving member in the 118-year history of the district, is stepping down.

She will be replaced by a newcomer — either Jeff Russell, an Everett pastor, or Pam LeSesne, a retired Navy captain.

For the other seat, incumbent Karen Madsen is seeking a third term. She faces district critic Jessica Olson.

Madsen has experience and reputation. She has helped champion measures to pay for new schools and is the elected president of the Washington State School Directors Association.

She also was part of the board that allowed the district to come under fire for secretly taping Cascade High School teacher Kay Powers in 2007 and approved the costly legal fight afterward. During the fallout, former Superintendent Carol Whitehead retired early.

In March, the board announced that Superintendent Gary Cohn was hired, without the opportunity for taxpayers and parents to meet any finalists. The president of the Everett teachers union blasted the selection process and some residents expressed outrage, saying the board needed to be more transparent to build public trust.

Madsen maintains that there are times when school board members must exercise discretion, whether in protecting the confidentiality of students during an investigation or in guaranteeing superintendent candidates that their names won’t be disclosed in order to get a deeper pool to hire from.

Olson has taken aim at Madsen for those positions, saying Madsen and the other board members squandered taxpayer dollars and were more concerned about superintendent candidates than about the public’s interest in such a key position.

Everett is an unusual district in that members serve six-year terms, like U.S. senators. Most districts have four-year terms. Everett also has “at large” positions, meaning candidates can live in any part of the district.

Everett is one of the state’s largest districts with 26 schools, more than 18,000 students and a $188 million annual operations budget. The position pays $50 a meeting up to $4,800 a year.

Here is a look at the two races.

Position 4

Olson, a member of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said the school district and school board have taken too many actions “behind a cloak of secrecy.”

She said district leaders were wrong to approve the use of a secret camera, which was placed in the ceiling of Powers’ classroom during an investigation of whether she was helping students publish an underground newspaper. Powers was fired after the district concluded she disobeyed Whitehead’s orders when she helped students produce the paper using district resources on district time. Powers was later reinstated — with back pay — after a settlement.

Olson said the case was overkill.

“Just because it was an underground newspaper, why would you want to make a big issue out of that?” she said.

Olson has a lawsuit pending against the district over access to documents she believes she is entitled to. She said she was unable to obtain all of her son’s educational records under special-education laws, and she had to turn to the state open public records act.

Madsen said she can’t say much about the case involving the Powers investigation because of confidentiality issues.

“The situation is always more complex than can be conveyed in a sound bite or even a newspaper article,” she said. “Often times information can’t be conveyed at all. … The district is always interested in protecting our students.”

A new agreement between the school board and teachers’ union limiting the use of surveillance cameras has been a positive step, she said.

Olson also criticized the board for the process it used to hire a new superintendent last spring. The board took public comment before the search began but did not name finalist candidates for faculty and staff to meet.

Madsen said the board went out of its way to get “broad, broad, broad input” from 850 staff and residents before launching the search.

“I believe we got a great superintendent who is going to be an excellent fit for our community,” Madsen said.

“You are there to serve the community, not to serve the candidates,” Olson said.

Olson also said the district needs to move away from “a fuzzy math” curriculum at the elementary through high school level.

“It’s my position you need to be taught the algorithm,” Olson said. “You need to be taught the basics, then if you need to be taught how to explain it in a sentence, you do that later.”

Madsen said the district’s math curriculum is targeted to meet state academic standards and prepares students well to solve higher-level reasoning problems.

The key is “judicious compromise,” to teach both the basics and the critical-thinking skills, she said.

Olson said she supports and is a product of public schools but her dissatisfaction with the district’s math curriculum and the fact that her family is Roman Catholic led her to enroll her two girls in private school.

For now, she is home-schooling and getting private tutoring for her 13-year-old son with autism. “That’s the best I can do for him,” she said. “They don’t have any research-based program with any model of efficacy.”

Olson said she has gained extensive knowledge of special education laws and would be a voice for parents with special-needs students.

Madsen, an educational consultant who taught high school science for 10 years, said the district has made great strides in increasing the number of students taking challenging courses, raising graduation rates, remodeling aging facilities and building new ones where needed, upgrading computer technology for students and staff and aligning curriculum with state standards.

Her budget priorities are to maintain class size goals with teachers, keep new programs that are improving student achievement and preserve teacher training.

Madsen has been on the school board for 12 years and has led school levy and bond campaigns every election since 1996.

Olson won a three-candidate primary in August with 41 percent of the vote to Madsen’s 40 percent.

Madsen’s Web site is www.karenmadsen.org.

Olson’s Web site is www.jessica4everettschoolboard.com.

Position 3

The candidates for Position 3 are vying for the chance to replace Cooper, who decided not to seek another term. Russell received 48 percent of the vote in the primary; LeSesne, 38 percent.

Russell, a pastor at Central Lutheran Church, has served on the Everett Public Schools Foundation and the district’s Career Technical Education Advisory Committee and has been an assistant football coach at Evergreen Middle School, where his wife is a teacher.

LeSesne, a retired Navy captain with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, has helped in classrooms and tutored students. She also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity Snohomish County.

Both candidates say the district must do more to meet the needs of all students, not just the college-bound.

LeSesne said the district’s first priority must be to make sure all children learn, and she would review discretionary funds within the budget to see whether money could be diverted to help meet students’ academic needs.

LeSesne said she wants to make sure new sports participation fees don’t leave students on the sidelines who would otherwise turn out.

“We can’t leave any one child out because of the inability of parents to pay for those things,” she said.

LeSesne said the district’s efforts to boost the graduation rate to 80 percent have been commendable, but “that means 20 percent is lost” and graduation rates of minorities are often lower.

LeSesne said she would emphasize partnerships between the schools, local businesses and the community, including volunteer mentors, the community college and people who know languages spoken by new immigrants enrolled in the schools.

Russell said the district needs to be more open.

“In talking with different groups or talking with the unions, talking with parents of students with special needs, the constant theme I hear is communication and openness, people who want to be brought into the process of decision-making,” Russell said.

Russell said it was “befuddling” for the board to hire a new superintendent without finalist candidates first meeting with the public. He also questioned the district’s decision to videotape Powers and its battle with student newspapers, saying there are more pressing issues, such as raising graduation rates.

He said he believes the district can bolster its vocational education offerings, which will engage more students.

Russell said he’d keep his role as a pastor separate from his role as an elected school board member. The state’s constitution “has one of the highest walls of separation of church and state,” he said, adding, “I think that is a gift.”

One of Russell’s goals is to let students feel more empowered in district decisions. He said the district should consider including nonvoting students on the school board, a practice common in several area school districts.

Russell’s Web site is jeffrussell4everettschools.webs.com; LeSesne’s site is www.electpamlesesne.com.