MV School Board at the meeting on Thursday prior to interviewing five finalists. From right to left, Superintendent Tom Venable and school board directors Jennifer Zbyszewski, Dana Stromberger, Judith Hardmeyer-Wright, and Frank Kline.

Disclosure: Writer is a member of RenewED, a local educational group.

Local educational group RenewED: Advocates for Student Excelence, has been in communication with our superintendent and school board since July of last year advocating for improved academic performance, an age appropriate sex ed curriculum, and protecting girls sports from what some of us see as unfair competition by biological boys.

On Nov. 22, RenewED presented a petition, signed by 138 residents in a short amount of time, to the school board requesting they appoint an open minded community member willing to engage on these issues as a replacement for Gary Marchbank’s school board seat. Marchbank resigned effective Dec. 31.

About a third of voters, as reflected in the most recent school board elections, would prefer a different direction on the school board.

The school board does not allow discourse with the community during school board meetings and our superintendent, who advises the school board and is the primary liaison with the community, has declined to explore a means of doing so. On Thursday, our school board had an opportunity to select someone who represents another viewpoint that could be a part of their conversation.

Instead, they chose one of their own.

Boo Schneider worked as a teacher, similar to Judith Hardmeyer-Wright, and she was a union representative. Her main talking point was “deep listening.” She did not offer any solutions or identify any challenges to our school district aside from “listening.”

She played it so safe that she didn’t acknowledge actual challenges staring at us in the face.

Our school board approved a $17.8 million budget for the 2024-25 school year. As of Spring 2024, half the students would need remedial classes if they went to college. Perhaps out of embarrassment of their own assessments, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has changed the wording from “Students on Track for College Level Learning Without Needing Remedial Classes” to the amorphous and beguilingly optimistic “Consistent Grade-level Knowledge (and above).”

One would think this would be an important part of the conversation for the next superintendent and school board appointee, but there has been no mention of the problem, as if it didn’t even exist. I have spoken at school board meetings, to which I get the obligatory 3 minutes and a cursory acknowledgement which I know will not lead to any follow up. And it hasn’t.

As for the community, the main response I hear is that we’re better than another school district.

That’s it?

I would hope that for $17.8 million, we would get more.

And… our school district will be asking for more. It will be coming in the form of asking residents to pay for school renovations and upgrades.

Our school district has shown it has its priorities straight, so we really should reward them with more money so we can feel good about ourselves and “support our schools.”

Based solely on her interview on Thursday, it’s not clear that Schneider has her priorities straight. She said the school’s challenge is to help students feel “safe” emotionally. This explains a lot about why we’re in the predicament that we’re in with H1B1 visas while we bemoan the lack of affordable housing, which is directly tied to skills and education.

Hence, our school district.

In her interview, Schneider made another remarkable statement. She said, “I just feel like the school is the one place, the first place that children really get to start to realize their worth….”

Replacing Marchbank would have been a great opportunity to have a different voice at the table, one that affirmed parental rights and acknowledged parents as the primary stakeholders in their children’s education, as well as the school’s responsibility to work with parents, not replace them.

Instead, the board chose one of their own, for which all of us, especially our students, pay the price.

I am the founder and editor of Methow Valley Examiner, an online publication for locals, by locals. MVE explores stories beyond the headlines.

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