Alan Weiss says his 42 years of education experience make him a strong candidate for the Edmonds School Board.
But Weiss’ record as principal of Edmonds-Woodway High School shows a long history of complaints about his leadership style.
A public records request by The Enterprise for the documents from Weiss’ 12 years in the district includes numerous complaints and reprimands for verbal abuse, intimidation, profanity, sexual innuendos, usurping decision-making and other issues.
Other records show staff defending Weiss.
District officials declined to speak about Weiss, but in November 2004, he was suspended for three days without pay for an e-mail to an employee. Superintendent Nick Brossoit wrote at the time that the message was “inappropriately hostile and disrespectful and had an intimidating effect.”
“This is not a first or second time for Alan,” he wrote.
Dan Wilson, president of the Edmonds Education Association for six years, said he’d had 15 to 20 complaints in the last two years Weiss was at the school. Teachers said that Weiss had embarrassed staff, not been collaborative, favored some staff over others, and other issues, Wilson said.
“There was constant intimidation in the building,” he said, adding that in recent years a lot of it has been “under the table.”
“It’s been my No. 1 problematic high school in the district,” he said.
In response, Weiss downplayed the negatives in his record. (See related story.)
Complaints about Weiss and concerns about the school’s climate date back to the 1996-97 school year in the records.
In May 2001, district officials responded to “numerous but consistently anonymous complaints” about Weiss with an investigation. Officials told Weiss to leave school for two days while they interviewed staff.
Interviews, letters and e-mails repeatedly say that Weiss yelled at staff, swore at them and humiliated them in public and private.
Weiss called employees names like “idiot,” “doormat,” “Pollyanna,” “elephant,” and “Princess,” according to the records.
“I have never worked in an environment where the manager treated staff so disrespectfully,” wrote a school counselor.
Staff also repeatedly said that Weiss threatened people and retaliated against them.
“I don’t get mad, I get even,” Weiss was known to say, according to some staff. Weiss also threatened to make people’s “lives miserable,” some staff said.
Staff also said that Weiss bypassed the school’s democratic decision-making processes.
He made sexual comments, some staff reported. One teacher said that while coaching track, she was chatting with a student about getting in shape when Weiss approached her.
“Alan walked toward me — took my shirt at the shoulder — pulled me close — frontal contact (I was pregnant and showing) — he said, ‘Who’s going to get you back into shape?’” the teacher said in the interview.
Some staff defended Weiss, called the investigation a “witch hunt” and praised him for raising the academic bar at the school.
“There are several reasons why Alan makes enemies,” one staff member wrote. “His mission was to move (the school) to a higher level. He does not tolerate poor teaching. Many teachers were threatened by this.”
It was a “small group” who was against Weiss, his supporters said.
The records show that most of the 90 employees interviewed spoke against him.
“The large majority of people interviewed expressed concern about your personal interactions,” assistant superintendent Ellen Kahan wrote in her meeting summary with Weiss after the 2001 investigation.
At the school staff meeting that followed, Kahan said she’d shared interview results with Weiss.
“Alan does not deny any of it…he has accepted full responsibility for his inappropriate actions and treatment of staff,” Kahan said in her typed speech. Weiss apologized to the group.
Kahan told Weiss to refrain from: swearing, confronting staff in public, making ageist or sexist comments and taking revenge on staff who were interviewed.
But three months later, in September 2001, Kahan reprimanded Weiss for again confronting a teacher in public.
“Over the course of the year there have been several incidents that have raised issues and questions about Alan’s leadership style,” Kahan wrote in Weiss’ 2001-02 employee evaluation.
Kahan also wrote that Weiss was working to improve.
Between fall 2002 and his retirement in summer 2007, Weiss’s record flip-flops between reprimands and praise from his supervisors.
In January 2004, assistant superintendent Ken Limon met with Weiss to share “strong concerns” and dictate an improvement plan. In two years of working with Weiss, Limon saw a pattern, he wrote.
“One of inconsistent, sometimes inappropriate processes and interactions,” Limon wrote.
People perceived that Weiss retaliated when challenged and felt that he alone should set the school’s direction, Limon wrote. He cited specific recent incidents as inappropriate and put Weiss on stricter oversight. Six months later, he gave Weiss a positive evaluation for 2003-04.
“I want to commend you on the work you have done to develop positive working relationships,” Limon wrote. “This has been a very good year for you.”
In 2004-05, Weiss was reprimanded three times.
First, he got the three-day suspension in November 2004 for a “hostile” e-mail to an employee. A month later, he was reprimanded for giving sexually explicit romance novels to female teachers at an awards ceremony. Three weeks later, in January 2005, he was reprimanded for sending personal information about former employees to all staff.
Despite all that, Weiss got a positive evaluation for that school year.
“With some notable exceptions…I believe you have continued to develop positive working relationships,” Limon wrote. “The data indicates a high commitment to shared decision-making.”
In the 2005-06 school year, Weiss had no formal reprimands from the district.
The next school year, Weiss was reprimanded again.
In October 2006, Weiss told a student she “had a perfect body for a runway model,” and told a female teacher, “If I lost my wife, you would be my first choice,” according to the reprimand.
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