Community support for the reinstatement of Dean of Students Tom Black is loud and passionate. (Moira Reed photo)
Expect #bringbackblack to dominate the airwaves once again.
The Coupeville School Board has a budget workshop this Thursday, July 20, then the budget hearing during its regular monthly meeting July 27.
That means the push to reinstate Dean of Students Tom Black, a 19-year vet who is currently a victim of budget cuts, will once again be front and center.
The following letter to the editor, which was also sent to school board members and Superintendent Steve King, is from a local family:
Hello Alison, Christine, Morgan, Nancy, Sherry, and Steve,
We respectfully request that you reinstate Mr. Tom Black as the Dean of Students.
The board was elected to represent and serve our community.
In our eight years with the Coupeville schools, we have rarely ever seen another district issue where the community has so clearly stated how they would like to be served.
The community has written letters to the Whidbey News-Times editor.
Written testimonials on Mr. Black’s positive impact on them among the many articles by David Svien about the community wanting to reverse this decision.
Been referenced in a top front page newspaper article about the controversy.
Been a frequent local discussion topic among parents and students plus posted across Facebook and social media.
Signed a petition that has 500+ people saying Mr. Black needs to be reinstated, and multiple people showed up to your recent board meeting in support of reversing this decision
There is unified, vocal, and extensive community input to reinstate Mr. Tom Black as the Dean of Students.
The community is asking you to figure out where else you can cut $85,000 from the budget.
This is only 6% of the budget cut proposal.
Nobody is “happy” with the other 94%, yet people understand that budget cuts are needed.
The focused public outcry is not second guessing that 94% or asking you to do the whole effort all over again.
It is important to not confuse effective leadership with “sticking to your guns” and “making the hard decisions that are not always popular.”
A mistake was made on a small portion of the overall proposal.
We are not perfect and nobody on this thread is perfect.
We hold no grudges against the initial mistake, especially since budget cuts are always hard.
However, the current situation is quite disheartening.
You are passively ignoring the ramifications, the clear community feedback on that initial decision, and the clear community directive to cut something else instead.
If the superintendent and the board just says “that’s the way it is” without listening to the input from your community, then you lose your ability to say you represent the interests of this community.
A sign of true leadership is recognizing a mistake and resolving it.
Anything else is just a case of inflexibility and a false sense that you have done your job, community needs and priorities be damned.
Since Steve has expressed his belief that he made the right decision with no known interest in changing it, we ask that the Board override his decision on this one item, direct Steve to seek cuts elsewhere, and reinstate Mr. Black promptly.
This request is coming from a broad base across the entire community that you are supposed to serve.
If you do not reverse this decision, it would essentially mean that you are unwilling to represent the clearly and loudly stated interests of your community.
You would do everyone a disservice if you are just a rubber stamp to a bad decision.
And this issue needs to be corrected rapidly before Mr. Black understandably needs to move on and find employment elsewhere.
Regards,
Scott, Karen and Lydia Price
Contact info for the superintendent and school board:
Steve King — sking@coupeville.k12.wa.us
Nancy Conard — nconard@coupeville.k12.wa.us
Alison Perera — aperera@coupeville.k12.wa.us
Sherry Phay — sphay@coupeville.k12.wa.us
Christine Sears — csears@coupeville.k12.wa.us
Morgan White — mwhite@coupeville.k12.wa.us
Coupeville Sports 