J.J. Wilbur on La Conner school board

If true that a busy person wears many different hats, don’t expect to see J.J. Wilbur without a head covering anytime soon.

Wilbur, a commercial fisherman who serves on both the Swinomish Tribal Senate and Fire District 13 Board of Commissioners, joined another local public service panel Monday night when he was chosen to fill the vacant Shelter Bay director district seat on the La Conner School Board.

Wilbur was selected by board members to succeed Brad Smith, who resigned mid-term in June, at the time Whitney Meissner resigned as district superintendent.

Danny Hagen, a residential appraiser with the Skagit County Assessor’s Office, and Reb Broker, a retired U.S. Marine, had also sought the board seat. They and Wilbur were interviewed last week.

During the interview session, Wilbur said his experience as a tribal senator and fire commissioner would translate well to service on the five-member school board.

The board agreed.

“We welcome you to the school board and look forward to working with you,” board president Susie Gardner Deyo told Wilbur during a 75-minute video-conferenced session. “We thank the other two candidates who stepped forward.

“Its great to have been selected from a great group of guys,” Wilbur said.

Coincidentally, Wilbur’s son, Dom, a 2020 La Conner High grad and college-bound freshman, was a student representative on the school board last year.

“My adviser,” Wilbur noted, only slightly in jest, “is a 17-year-old, and he’s a good one.”

Wilbur immediately donned his school board hat on Monday. After being sworn into office by Interim La Conner Schools Superintendent Rich Stewart, he joined the board in accepting a modified calendar for the 2020-21 academic year.

The action calls for online fall semester classes at La Conner to begin Sept. 14. La Conner Schools normally start the Tuesday after Labor Day or earlier.

“We’re revising the calendar because of COVID-19,” Stewart said. “It modifies the start of the school year so that we can have a better communication plan with parents in place and more time to train staff.”

Stewart said teachers are prepping to deliver lessons through video platforms that are more structured than what was used last spring when school campuses across the state were abruptly closed to stem spread of the coronavirus.

Elementary teachers are working with the SeeSaw online learning program. Secondary teachers are training on the Canvas platform.

“I’m really glad we decided to go online (to start school),” said student board representative MacQuaid Hiller. “It’s the best way to go. It’s the safest thing to do.”

District officials hope instruction can gradually shift to hybrid and then in-person models as the school year progresses, with transition decisions coming in December or January at the earliest, said Stewart.

Answering a question by Board Member John Agen, Stewart said he doesn’t anticipate teachers needing additional training to make those transitions when the time comes.

“I think we’ll be doing that as we go along,” Stewart said. “I don’t believe the hybrid model will be a problem. We’ll still have an option for online. The only thing that will change is when kids come back to school.”

At the secondary level, La Conner students will take five rather than seven classes to provide greater depth in tackling course material.

“Having five classes per semester is a great idea,” Wilbur said. “It gives students a better grasp of the subject matter.”

The five-class format also frees up time for students needing to pursue credit recovery, La Conner Middle and High School Principal Kathy Herrera said.

La Conner Elementary plans offering instruction four week days, with Wednesdays earmarked for professional development, staff meetings and small group support opportunities.

The board, which has met weekly much of the summer while addressing budget, personnel, and COVID-19 topics, convenes next with an Aug. 24 Zoom meeting.

“We have two weeks off,” Deyo said. “This is huge. We haven’t had that in a while.