FORKS — Paul Headley, a six-year Quillayute Valley School District board member, will resign at the next School Board meeting, he said Thursday.
Citing his inability to get to the bottom of a community controversy over alleged administrative problems at Forks High School, including the performance of Principal Steve Quick, Headley told Peninsula Daily News on Thursday that he will call it quits.
“At the next School Board meeting [May 17], I’m officially turning in my resignation,” Headley said.
“I’m not going to be a part of an organization that’s not doing its job.”
Headley said he became fed up after Tuesday’s School Board meeting, at which he suggested that a third-party, independent state mediator should be invited to the district to get to the bottom of why so many students, parents and school staffers have been upset over how the high school is run.
Headley said some School Board members reacted negatively to his suggestion after the meeting.
“We can’t be closing our eyes and ears to this,” said Headley, referring to his belief that community members will be closely monitoring the School Board from now on.
“[Public outrage] has died down, but it hasn’t gone away,” he said.
School Board President Bill Rohde said Thursday he wasn’t aware that Headley was resigning.
No decision on mediator
As far as bringing in an independent mediator from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the School Board hasn’t made a decision, he said.
“We had talked about that in executive session before,” Rohde said Thursday.
“As a School Board . . . we need to talk about it some more.”
Superintendent Frank Walter has been mentoring Quick and meeting with him on a regular basis, Rohde said.
“People are learning all the time, and Mr. Quick is no exception,” Rohde said.
“The public . . . is not entitled to [know about] the actions that are being taken on personnel, and to my knowledge no action has been taken against Mr. Quick, because he has done nothing illegal or out of line.”