By Megan Rogers
Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — Incumbents and challengers alike got a chance to talk about elementary school reconfiguration, post-COVID education and the Sequim School District’s role at a candidate forum last week.
The League of Women Voters of Clallam County and the North Olympic Library System conducted the primary election forum on Zoom on Thursday night. The primary election will be on Aug. 1, Ballots will be mailed on Wednesday.
Participating candidates included incumbent Larry Jeffryes and challenger Jim Shepherd for Position 1; incumbent Maren Halvorsen and challenger Derek Huntington for Position 4, a two-year unexpired term; and current school board director Michael Rocha and challenger Hunter Gilliam for Position 5, also a two-year unexpired term.
Challengers John Graham (Position 1) and Dean Christian (Position 4) did not participate, nor did Sandra Kellso — a Position 5 candidate who has since dropped out of the race — and board director Eric Pickens, running unopposed.
Each participant was given 90 seconds to answer each of the seven questions.
Reconfiguration
In a 4-1 vote on April 10, school board directors agreed on April 10 to a plan that shifts pre-kindergarten through second grade students to Greywolf Elementary, and the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders to Helen Haller Elementary School, starting in the 2023-24 school year. The schools currently both house students in kindergarten-fifth grade.
Candidates were asked what issues the reconfiguration is trying to address, how board members will know it is successful, and what can be done to address concerns.
Halvorsen, who along with Jeffryes and Rocha voted for the reconfiguration, said that the move is in part a response to stagnant scores.
“It is something we will look very closely at in this coming year,” Halvorsen said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity.”
The best way to check if the reconfiguration is working is to check in with the students, checking their test sources and making sure they are where they should be, Halvorsen said.
“If not, then we need to address it and find out what needs to be fixed so that they can be back to where they should be,” Huntington said.
This reconfiguration, Halvorsen said, also can address teacher burnout, offering more opportunities for collaboration.
Huntington said he thought some were upset about the change because they didn’t know the reasoning behind it.
“What they’re trying to do is get everybody to be grouped together and go to school together so that everybody knows each other,” Huntington said.
Post-COVID education
Considering the academic struggles across the nation in the post-COVID-19 pandemic years, forum candidates were asked if they are satisfied with Sequim students’ academic performance, and if not, how they would work to improve that performance.
According to Jeffryes, the board needs to find more ways to reach out to people to receive input.
He said even given the challenges of the pandemic, there are amazing teaching and amazing things going on in the school system.
“However, the trend … is flat and we have not improved to the level we need to,” Jeffryes said.
Students may not be mentally ready for that change right but Shepherd said that people will get used to the new way.
“I hope in the future that we can keep things stable and keep things rolling and ensure the success and safety of our students,” Shepherd said.
Curriculum
Forum candidates were asked to define the role of schools in teaching children about cyber safety, wellness, voting, sex education and other topics.
“That’s to educate our children to create well-rounded people,” Rocha said. “We have our counselors, we have our outreach, but I just worry that we’re putting a little too much emphasis on some of this stuff,” such as social-emotional learning.
Rocha said that as a parent, he is more concerned with test scores, grades and core skills than how much sex education is in classrooms.
Gilliam said the district should create a safe environment for students, and that while core education is important, it won’t be effective if the environment isn’t safe.
Gilliam said he participated in assemblies such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E), anti-bullying and sex education as a student in the district.
“They were just wonderful and I think that without distracting away from our core learning, I think that we could really even augment some of those things,” Gilliam said.
Working with parents and using age-appropriate materials, “really would help our whole school district in our community,” he said.
Magic wand
What if they had a magic wand?
Said Huntington: “I would just make it so that all the kids are successful in everything they do … And everybody would be like, ‘Well, we need to go to Sequim because they have the best school district in the entire world.’”
Jeffryes said he’d like to see Sequim be a “shining” school district “where we would have number one facilities and we would have award-winning schools recognized for their educational excellence.
“I think we have the people in the community that can get that done,” he added.
Said Shepherd: “School, even if it’s just in retrospect, should be the happiest time of the kids’ life. I think that it’s up to the teachers, the administrators and school boards to create that for students.”
Halvorsen wants to see “engagement in the classroom with our students and our teachers working together” and if funds are available “a lot more extensive field trips and going out into the world.”
Rocha said his wish would be for facilities.
“This district has had a tough time passing the bond,” he said. “I think that helps with school spirit and school pride that helps with belonging, inclusivity and it helps with the education system. If a kid is worried about how hot it is in the classroom in the summertime, it’s hard to concentrate on the lesson.”
Gilliam agreed, saying that the high school and the elementary school are both in just … sorry shape, as far as facilities are concerned. The track is unsafe for events,” he said.
“I think that there’s so much that even our school board can do as advocates for the community, beyond waving a magic wand, to reach out to our community in a better way and present these issues in a more relatable way and make those things happen.”
Also addressed at the forum were book-banning trends, civics education and responsibilities of board members.
A recording of the forum is at lwvcla.clubexpress.com/forums.
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Megan Rogers is an intern with the Sequim Gazette, a sister paper with the Peninsula Daily News under Sound Publishing.
