CAMANO: Calls grow for School Board president to resign

Isabella Loy reports from the Stanwood-Camano School District for the Stanwood Camano News.

More than 600 people have signed a petition as of Friday morning urging Stanwood-Camano School Board President Al Schreiber to step down from his position.

…It was announced Wednesday that the next school board meeting, scheduled for Nov. 19, has been canceled. The meeting was canceled due to the majority of board members being unable to attend.

Each year, the Stanwood-Camano School Board attends the Washington State School Directors’ Association annual conference. This year, the conference is being held from Thursday, Nov. 21 to Saturday, Nov. 23 in Spokane.

According to district staff, no one can find or recall an instance where a Stanwood-Camano School Board meeting was canceled due to lack of quorum.

They Said It

Director Miranda Evans and board Vice President Charlotte Murry both said in phone calls to SC News that they were planning to attend the meeting and travel to the conference afterward.

Evans said that a poll went out to board members multiple times asking if they’d be attending the board meeting — and she repeatedly selected that she would be.

Evans and Murry were both notified unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon that the meeting would be canceled.

“I planned on being at the meeting,” Murry said. “I was actually going to be flying out late Tuesday in order to be at the meeting … so I had made all of the accommodations to make sure I was in attendance.”

Evans said she was told that other three board members — Schreiber, Betsy Foster and Steve King — are likely going to Spokane early.

“When I spoke with the superintendent … she said that they were talking about potentially going to the conference early,” Evans said. “And I said, ‘Well, I’m also going to the conference early, but I guess they’re going really early.’”

In an email sent to SC News on Friday afternoon, King said he is unable to attend the meeting because he is out of state visiting family. 

Murry said the sudden board meeting cancelation, especially so close to a major holiday, is concerning.

“It’s really frustrating,” Murry said. “This year, with the holiday being at the very end of the month, it’s problematic for the board in regards to approving payroll and bills, which are required to be done by the board every month.”

“If it’s not scheduled in an appropriate time, there’s a possibility that we will miss the deadline for making sure that our district bills are paid on time,” she added.

Murry has served as board vice president for the past two years and said her experience working with Schreiber has been less than ideal.

“The communication has been severely lacking,” she said. “Director Evans and myself were in these roles prior to Director Schreiber coming in, and we were in regular communication as to what all was going on. And that has not happened this year with Director Schreiber being in the president’s role.”

Without communication between the president and vice president, Murry said she feels it is difficult to keep the board functioning smoothly.

Murry said she hopes Schreiber will contact the board soon so district operations can proceed.

“I’ve made the request that we make sure that we reschedule the meeting as soon as possible,” she said. “Even if we were to have the meeting on Wednesday, which would be the day before Thanksgiving, that’s not going to give our staff adequate time to do things they need to do in regards to our bills and payroll.”