The rule of law and difficult times

I have served on several school boards, beginning when my daughter was in the first grade. She’s now 42, her youngest is in the first grade and, oddly, this is the first time I’ve written a candidacy profile. I find myself with little to draw upon, facing a situation where I must focus on myself. I prefer to focus on others – learn from them; work with them toward building . . . something.

What I do know is governance is a messy business. You will never make everyone happy. If you are lucky, people will understand and accept your decisions.

For years our schools enjoyed a supportive community – levies always passing, generally at over 70%. The board’s monthly meetings were quiet. The board met, made informed decisions, and went home – hoping to get feedback.

Then, just as I came onto the board, and in response to the Great Wolf Lodge decision, all buildings on tribal land were removed from the County’s tax rolls. The impact on our district was immediate and devastating. The district would lose nearly $800,000 in voter-approved levy money. Suddenly the tide turned and many in the community, on all sides of the issue, felt threatened and attacked. The newspaper lit up and our board meetings got less quiet.

Still we listened – we paid attention. We studied options; we weighed pros and cons; we made difficult decisions balancing the burdens and benefits.

Then our superintendent of 27 years took a job teaching at WWU. We hired a well-respected search firm, engaged the community, staff and students in our search process – and hired Dr. Whitney Meissner, whose credentials were impeccable and who came to us highly recommended. She immediately tackled what some might call “the elephant in the room,” and went to work repairing what had become a fractured relationship with the Swinomish Tribe.

Coincidentally, she came to us from the birthplace of McCleary – which sought to hold our state to its constitutional duty to “adequately fund basic education.” Roughly translated: To hold the state accountable so local districts wouldn’t have to rely on levies. Our Supreme Court agreed, and the state legislature worked the next several years to pass legislation – which completely upended the way schools are funded.

Happily, for La Conner School District purposes, we could seriously look at increasing teacher pay. The board sought to support our teachers at the highest attainable level. On the recommendations of our superintendent and business manager, we increased teachers’ salaries by 27%, knowing that meant a year’s worth of deficit spending – with every confidence that deficit could be made up through increased enrollment, additional funding sources and our community’s financial support.

We also found ourselves facing some very difficult “personnel decisions” – about which by law we cannot be “open and transparent.” The process was incredibly painful – for so many and on so many levels. Confidence was shaken. People were angry. We listened – we could not respond.

Some perceive that failure to respond as failure. But we did listen, even when the roar was anything but quiet – and at times was hurtful. In so listening, we didn’t insist that the rule of law – our policies and procedures – be followed. I accept that as a failure; I accept there may be others.

Paraphrasing Sabaa Tahir, it is what you do after you fail that determines who you are; if failure isn’t encouraged, people will be afraid; where failures are acknowledged, we can adjust.

So, here we now are – working together to adjust, to repair and rebuild. Please support all of us in that work.