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Posts Tagged ‘Coupeville High School’

CHS/CMS music director placed on administrative leave

Posted in Not sports? Tough!, tagged , , , , on January 4, 2024| 2 Comments »

Jamar Jenkins keeps the music flowing. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

For the first time in two decades, there’s a new person currently in charge of keeping the beat going at Coupeville High School and Middle School.

Jamar Jenkins, the school’s music teacher and band director since 2003, is currently on paid administrative leave.

Coupeville Schools Superintendent Steve King released a statement from CHS/CMS Principal Geoff Kappes Thursday afternoon, in a bid to offer clarity to rampant discussion on social media.

That statement:

“As many of you know Mr. Jenkins has not been teaching his classes over the past couple of weeks.

“In order to make sure you have accurate information I’m writing to inform you that Mr. Jenkins is on paid administrative leave while the concerns that were reported are being investigated.

“This leave is not disciplinary and the District has reached no conclusions regarding what personnel actions, if any, may be appropriate.

“We ask for patience and respect for the investigative process, as well as your understanding that we are not able to discuss further specifics of the concerns at this time.”

A graduate of the University of Washington, Jenkins has an extensive history as a professional musician, coming up through the Seattle funk scene in the 1970’s.

A guitarist and vocalist, he is one of the founders of the band Cold, Bold, and Together, originally known as Funk Experience.

Cold, Bold, and Together in their prime. (Photo property Light in the Attic Records)

That group, which later introduced the world to Kenny G, was together from 1971-1978 and opened for Canned Heat, Kool & the Gang, KC & the Sunshine Band, and Earth, Wind & Fire among others.

After band members opted to move on to different projects as disco swept the nation, Jenkins went to college, got married and fathered children, and moved into teaching music.

He had teaching stints in Tacoma and Los Angeles before moving to Whidbey Island, where his wife, Allenda, grew up in Oak Harbor.

Jenkins daughter, Janiece, is a member of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, captured three medals at the state track and field championships in 2005, and held the school record in the 200 for eight years.

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CHS works on tennis courts, softball field

Posted in Everything changes, tagged , , , , on December 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“They’re going to improve our field. No, really!” (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Coupeville High School officials are moving forward on two projects to improve playing surfaces for Wolf athletics.

The ongoing construction of new tennis courts next to the CHS gym has mostly been completed, but the actual pouring of concrete will likely have to wait until after the brunt of winter, said Superintendent Steve King.

For now, the project, which is a capital project funded by a levy, has produced additional parking slots for those attending basketball games.

Those slots are located on the Northwest corner of the gym.

Once spring arrives, CHS also plans to begin work on improvements to the school’s softball field.

“In working with our community and the Town of Coupeville, we have determined that a renovation of the field is a better option than our original plans to relocate,” King said.

“We will be doing some initial improvements on the field this winter, and then during the summer of 2024, we will do a more significant update.

“The most important part of this change will be creating a larger and safer backstop to keep balls off of Terry Road for safety reasons.”

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Fourth CHS/CMS secretary calls for paraeducator hire

Posted in Not sports? Tough!, tagged , , , , on December 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »

A fourth Coupeville High School/Middle School secretary has written a letter to Superintendent Steve King and the school board asking for help.

CMS Secretary Lisa Yoder joins Registrar/Counseling Secretary Eileen Stone, Attendance/Athletic Secretary Barbi Ford, and Fiscal/ASB secretary Rosalie Fix in expressing the belief budget cuts have placed a substantial burden on support staff and are stretching them to the limit.

The four, who have combined to give the district 39 years, are asking district officials to put a priority on hiring a general education paraeducator.

Yoder, who is also part of the Coupeville Educational Support Association Exec Board, addresses the impact the letters have, while detailing why the secretaries have reached this point.

“We do not want to advertise our district’s shortcomings and we do not want our school community to think we do not appreciate our important roles/the opportunities we have to support our students and their families,” she said.

In the letter, Yoder details a meeting with district officials, and the secretary’s belief that their concerns are not being fully addressed.

“We asked for some help, by way of a part time substitute of any kind, to assist with tutorial, lunch supervision, ISS, secretary lunch coverage, etc., until winter break.

“The help we received from the district was being told to create a schedule where we cover for each other at lunch, which has only added to our workloads and has done nothing to help with the most important issue we brought forth, which is the plight of our students.

“We realize the budget situation is certainly not ideal, but is it so dire that we couldn’t have had a substitute at the rate of approx. $20 per hour to come in for three hours a day just to get us to winter break?”

The letters come in advance of the final school board meeting of 2023, which is set for Thursday, Dec. 14 at 5:30 PM in the Kathleen Anderson Boardroom on the CHS campus.

The school board acknowledges receiving correspondence during those meetings, but letters are not read aloud.

Public comment is allowed earlier in the meeting.

 

To read Yoder’s full letter, pop over to:

Click to access Letter%20from%20L%20Yoder.pdf

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CHS secretaries ask for help

Posted in Not sports? Tough!, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Three highly respected Coupeville High School employees have submitted letters to Coupeville Superintendent Steve King and the school board asking for help.

The trio — Attendance/Athletic Secretary Barbi Ford, Fiscal/ASB Secretary Rosalie Fix, and Registrar/Counseling Secretary Eileen Stone — have combined to give 32 years to the district.

Now, all three, while describing their deep love of the school and community, say CHS is reaching a breaking point.

With Vice Principal Leonard Edlund out since the start of the year with medical issues, and Dean of Students Tom Black — originally a budget cut — brought back only on a part-time basis, they describe a situation where the administration is stretched extremely thin — and the support crew is taking the brunt of it.

“It shouldn’t be the norm to have the principal be the primary lunchroom supervisor 5+ hours a week, while more pressing matters must be put on hold,” Fix said.

“It should not be the norm to have the Fiscal Secretary monitor Tutorial 2+ hours a week or for the Athletics Secretary to monitor ISS or after school study groups.

“It should not be the norm for the MS/HS Attendance Secretaries to feel the need to forfeit their lunches and breaks most days, because no one is available to cover the office that cannot be unattended.”

That’s a sentiment shared by her co-workers, and all three are asking the district to put an emphasis on hiring much-needed help.

“I feel like many of the hardships that we secretaries are facing could be decreased if we were able to have a general education paraeducator to provide some coverage,” Ford said.

“To help with tutorial, assist lunch supervision, allowing our counselors to be available to students in crisis, without leaving student lunch unsupervised, help cover secretary lunches, provide some direction and supervision for discipline and in school suspension, cover our front desks in the event of training or forums, maybe even help track credit recovery classes that we used to have a fulltime dedicated teacher to do.

“It is getting to the point that we are going to have to look at our job descriptions and identify our priorities because, quite frankly, it is getting nearly impossible to get everything done.”

The three letters are published on the agenda for the year’s final school board meeting, which is set for Thursday, Dec. 14 at 5:30 PM in the Kathleen Anderson Boardroom on the CHS campus.

School board members acknowledge receiving correspondence during those meetings, but it is not read aloud.

Public comment is allowed earlier in the meeting.

 

To read the full letters, pop over to:

 

Rosalie Fix:

Click to access Letter%20from%20R.%20Fix.pdf

 

Barbi Ford:

Click to access Letter%20from%20B.%20Ford.pdf

 

Eileen Stone:

Click to access Email%20from%20E.%20Stone.pdf

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Coupeville schools plan new PAC seating

Posted in school board, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The Coupeville High School gym got a seating upgrade in recent years. Time for the school’s PAC to join the modern world. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

New seats, after 30 years.

That’s the plan, as Coupeville School District officials are moving forward on a project to replace the seats in the high school/middle school Performing Arts Center.

The project, set for summer 2024, is projected to cost $284,000 and is covered by a capital projects levy.

Approval is on the agenda for the final school board meeting of the year, which goes down next Thursday, Dec. 14 in the Kathleen Anderson Boardroom on the CHS campus.

The meeting starts at 5:30 PM and is open to the public, while also being available to stream.

The PAC seats are original to the building, and date back to 1994, said Facilities Director Scott Losey.

In his letter to board members, he details the many problems with the ageing seats.

They are old enough the district can’t replace parts anymore, so “as the seats break, they are replaced with ones from the top rows to keep the lower ones in operation.

“The difficulty of operation of setting them up and taking them down has become a great undertaking,” Losey added.

“This typically takes the physical strength of multiple people. So, for the health and safety of our staff and specifically our maintenance and custodial staff replacement is needed.”

Losey also states “the seating will be more comfortable than current seats and the arm rests are flexible as we have the ability to move them up and down.”

 

To see the proposal from Nor-Pac Seating, pop over to:

Click to access Coupeville%20MS%20PAC%20MXM%2B%20Price%20Quote.pdf

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