The Coupeville Education Association and the Coupeville Educational Support Association recently compiled a 77-page climate survey, which showed disapproval for the jobs being done by Superintendent Shannon Leatherwood, school administrators, and the school board.
Coupeville Elementary School Principal Erica McColl was the exception, receiving high praise.
The following letter to the editor is written by School Board Vice President Nancy Conard:
Nancy Conard
I have lived in Coupeville for 70 years.
I am a proud K-12 alumni of Coupeville Schools.
I worked for the Coupeville Schools for 30 years, primarily as business manager.
I have been very actively involved in the Coupeville community my entire life, including 20 years as mayor of the Town.
I joined the school board five years ago, in part because my granddaughter, who we raised, was a student in the school, and in part because I was interested in supporting the school district.
Frankly, I was initially disappointed to learn that the financial management of the district was weak at that time, and there were a lot of opportunities for improvement throughout the district.
The school board and administration have worked through many of the financial issues, although there is still more work to do.
We adopted a new Strategic Plan which has guided some of the administrative priorities.
We are also working with the superintendent to support management and administrative changes … as we have faced some challenges in the last few years.
I appreciate and support her efforts to improve Coupeville Schools.
I have read the survey conducted by the labor unions and appreciate the input they received from staff. I support their right to conduct a survey and am looking forward to learning more about their issues.
I am disappointed that the unions chose such a public method of expressing their concerns.
Union leaders met with the superintendent, the board president, Morgan (White), and me, the board vice president, last Thursday to deliver the survey results and it was distributed to the staff and media on Friday.
The school board meets twice a month, once in workshop session and once is a formal meeting.
There is opportunity for public input at these meetings, and I think that would have been a good time to bring issues to the board. It didn’t happen.
In addition, all five of the board members are accessible to the staff and the community and will meet when asked.
There are also communication meetings with the administration and union, where these issues could also have been discussed.
Coupeville is a special community, and we work together, in good times and in bad, to support our folks.
I would urge our staff and our community to work with us to strengthen our school community and to hold back on the reaction to the negativity expressed in the survey.
Let’s use our energy in a positive way!
As your elected school board representative, you can reach me at nancyconard@aol.com or 360-969-0023.
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