letter to the editor | Coupeville Sports

Posts Tagged ‘letter to the editor’

Concerns raised about softball field work

Posted in school board, Softball, tagged CHS Wolves, Coupeville School Board, Ebey's Reserve, letter to the editor, Softball on May 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The proposed new backstop. (Photo property Coupeville School District)

The agenda for Thursday’s Coupeville School Board meeting includes a chance for the directors to approve the district beginning work on a project to build a much-larger backstop on the school’s softball field.

If approved, the $150,000 project on Terry Road would be financed through a previously passed levy which has already paid for new tennis courts to be built next to the CHS gym.

With the board considering the request, a family with longtime roots on the prairie has sent the following letter to directors, which they have agreed to let be shared here in full:

We are softball and baseball parents. We love to see the success and support in the community that the softball program has had, and we support the opportunity for them to have improved fields.

Our parents and grandparents were active supporters of Coupeville sports and showed this by attending games, supporting teams and providing the land that the baseball and softball fields are now located on.

They were also supporters of the vision of the Reserve to keep this specific land free of permanent structures that detract from the historic view — to keep it as it was.

This commitment cost them convenience and monetary expense over the years.

The understanding they always had was that the school district shared a commitment to this vision.

The promise from (former Superintendent) Suzanne Bond was that the sports complex would be built across the street from the Reserve.

We understand those promises may not have been binding — that leadership and priorities change.

We understand that putting this 28-foot backstop on the current location is understandably easier and less expensive than the original plan our family understood.

We also understand that this seems to have passed all the formal steps and that the Historical Preservation Committee didn’t see this as a violation of the historic vision.

We disagree and we are disappointed.

Unfortunately, at the time of the meeting last year where this was discussed, our dad was very sick, and we could not attend.

We grew up hearing about the historic preservation of the prairie and our grandparents were so proud that their grandchildren would see the prairie as their great grandparents did. This is not the case now.

The seventh generation of Coupeville residents will see an altered prairie viewshed.

We wish Coupeville schools the best, but we ask that you share this with the board and reconsider this course of action.

Go Wolves!

David Engle’s daughters

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“This is scary and alarming”

Posted in budget cuts, tagged budget cuts, Coupeville High School, Jessica Van Velkinburgh, letter to the editor, paraeducators, Tom Black on July 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Jessica Van Velkinburgh

The debate about what should and shouldn’t be included in ongoing budget cuts in the Coupeville School District is the story of the summer.

The following letter to the editor comes to us from Wolf Mom Jessica Van Velkinburgh:

What does priority services mean to the Coupeville School District, its parents and its leaders?

When we talk about budget cuts it’s important to acknowledge what’s a priority to keep and what’s seen as excessive and/or unnecessary considering the available budget.

As parents, students and staff, if we were asked to rank these four items in order of priority services, what would your order be?

1 — Adequate special education service that meets the IEP requirements of ALL students ($200k appropriately).

2 — Adequate paraeducators to be able to provide necessary safety and educational services to all students, required by IEPs — 30k average annual salary per paraeducator.

3 — A Dean of Students with over a decade of working with these students inside this district.

A staff member who is the #1 relied upon staff member students trust to confide in when being bullied, feeling unsafe in and out of school, and asking for help with mental health services.

Annual salary — 85k.

4 — A six-figure salaried farm to table private chef experience with a personal assistant to this chef with a pay of 80k salary per year.

A ‘pet project’ to the superintendent, totaling 180k.

Not including anything else related to the lunch program — two salaries only.

As a mom of a student with an IEP who Coupeville has acknowledged for nearly a decade they can’t/won’t accommodate due to funding, my priorities may vary from yours.

But keep in mind I also have three children who have a combined 20+ years of schooling in Coupeville — one graduated, one in middle school, and one in elementary.

My husband, myself, and my mom are all Coupeville graduates, so this district is dear to us.

With that said these are my thoughts on our budget crisis.

My second oldest child is autistic and has been enrolled in the Oak Harbor School District since first grade.

She has been in their self-contained special education program as an out of district student for over nine years.

All nine of those years Coupeville released their state funding for her to Oak Harbor so they wouldn’t have to accommodate her IEP.

Several of those years Superintendent Steve King signed an agreement with Oak Harbor to pay upwards of 30k annually on top of her state funding so he didn’t have to accommodate her special education IEP in Coupeville.

What does that amount of given away money total, and what could it have done for Coupeville, as well as other students in the district whose needs aren’t met?

I know at times many students with IEPs were being sent away from the district as well, with the same financial loss to Coupeville.

This year, with the support of the OSPI Special Education Director, we have met with the Coupeville Special Education Director to require they meet her IEP and accommodate her as the law requires, so she can attend her home school next year.

In this meeting the Coupeville director acknowledged that they not only don’t and likely never will have the self-contained special education program her and many other Coupeville students need, they are extremely short staffed in paraeducators.

That makes it impossible at the moment to accommodate her IEP, which requires a 1:1 para throughout the duration of the day.

They assured me over the summer they would be filling this position to ensure there will be adequate paraeducators for my daughter and the other students.

Now I am seeing not only did they eliminate one full time paraeducator position, they also cut the hours of the remaining paras.

Meaning in essence, if they assign her the full-time para next year as the law requires, the remaining students in the district are now short two full time paras with eliminated hours for the remaining.

This is scary and alarming not only for me and my child, but for the parents and other students that will no longer get their legally required paraeducator support because this was seen as a lower ranking priority to Mr. Steve King and the board.

With all that considered, what seems to take #1 priority for the above mentioned is the farm to table private chef service they offer at our district.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful idea.

And the students and us parents think it’s a great program IF, and only IF, there are extra funds to make this program work.

But in what I believe to be a biased decision, the superintendent is protecting his ‘pet project’, his ‘resume builder’, over protecting what’s essential for students to have a free and safe education.

Their most basic right.

The salary going to the private chef (100k annually) as well as the salary going to the private chef’s assistant (80k) would cover not only Mr. Black and 3+ paraeducators.

It could instead cover a fulltime special education teacher, and 2-3 full time paraeducators, which is what is needed for a self-contained special education program.

Or that 180k would rehire Mr. Black (who I whole heartedly believe saves fragile teenage lives every year in our school district), fill the eliminated para position, at least keeping the number the same as opposed to 2+ less than promised.

While still allowing for a reasonable salary for an adequate lunch program coordinator.

What I would ask is, are the priorities of the leaders of the Coupeville school district in line with the best interests of their students?

Mr. Black saves lives; paraeducators and children receiving the services needed for a safe and free education truly saves lives of special needs children.

We can even argue saving sports and athletic positions can help keep struggling children alive and on the right track.

But the question is why, when a luxury lunch program in a small district can’t save lives, why is it being placed so high on the priority list above all others?

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“This is a mistake”

Posted in budget cuts, tagged budget cuts, Coupeville High School, Eric Ohme, letter to the editor, Tom Black on June 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Tom Black

It’s not just students.

Parents are speaking out as well, determined to convince Coupeville Schools Superintendent Steve King to reverse his decision to cut the Dean of Students position, ending Tom Black’s 19-year run of working with local students.

Our next letter to the editor comes from a father who has seen lives changed, teens helped, new hope given.

Here are my two cents:

It felt like a punch in the gut when I heard that Dean of Students Tom Black had been terminated by Coupeville High School as part of their budget process.

This is a mistake.

A mistake that will have drastic consequences to many current and future students of Coupeville High School.

As a parent of two former Coupeville High School students and a current middle school student, I know from personal experience that Mr. Black selflessly helped a great number of students, including my own sons.

When one of my own sons was having an extremely difficult time, due in great part to the Covid remote learning, I reached out to Mr. Black and shared my concern.

Within an hour, Mr. Black was at my home having a heart-to-heart conversation with my son.

I don’t know what they talked about, but it was enough to keep my son in school and he has since graduated with honors.

I have many other examples of the positive things Mr. Black has done for my kids, both big and small.

I have just as many examples of the extraordinary things Mr. Black has done for other kids we know.

Dean of Students is not just a job for Mr. Black – he is ALL IN for the wellbeing of his students.

Mr. Black genuinely cares for kids.

They know that, and because of that, they look forward to seeing him.

They trust him, respect him, and take his advice.

I cannot imagine how many kids went on to graduate that otherwise would have dropped out if Mr. Black hadn’t been an influence in their lives.

I personally know of several.

On this, a value cannot be placed.

If the superintendent and board put the well-being of the present and future students of Coupeville High School in the forefront, they will look elsewhere to cut the budget.

Eric M. Ohme

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