CAMANO: Community, school district respond to controversy surrounding school board study session (SCN)

Isabella Loy reports from a meeting of the Stanwood Alliance for Equity on Wed., Mar. 20, 2024 for the Stanwood Camano News.

Two Stanwood-Camano School Board members have been facing backlash due to comments they made at a school board study session Tuesday, March 19.

Director Betsy Foster initiated the study session to discuss positions put forth by the Washington State School Directors’ Association, advocating for the removal of language surrounding equity and diversity.

Foster also brought up concerns about local control. She told board members that the state should not have power when it comes to making decisions for the distinct.

The conversation turned into a heated exchange between Foster and others at the meeting.

They Said It

One of the board’s student advisers, Grace Pacheco, and Stanwood High School Principal Mike Washington told Foster that equity standards are an integral part of the Stanwood-Camano School District and removing them would be detrimental.

Director Steve King also commented on the proposed changes brought up by Foster. He has since received criticism for saying that homeless students, or those who have a parent struggling with addiction, have “very, very limited potential.”

King also said the majority of the school district’s resources should not be spent on trying to bring those kids up to par with their peers.

[Stanwood Alliance For Equity] President Satin-Deseree Arnett, who is also a member of the Stanwood-Camano School District’s Equity Team, led Wednesday’s meeting.

Arnett said she was especially heartbroken by the way Foster spoke to Pacheco when Pacheco tried to share her experiences with racism in school.

“I’m just so exhausted,” Arnett said. “It is just so tiring constantly having to validate, having to prove to somebody your life experience, having to prove your existence, having to prove that you go through these things.”

“And then watching it be done to a student by a school board member is heartbreaking,” she added.

Arnett told the members of S.A.F.E. not to attack the school district as a whole and instead focus on supporting students and holding Foster and King accountable.

While the Stanwood Camano News reached out to both King and Foster, Foster did not wish to elaborate on comments she made during the study session.

“I really don’t have anything else to say,” she said in a phone call with SC News on Thursday.

Foster also sent an email to SC News on Saturday.

“This is what governance is about,” she said in the email. “I don’t understand this confusion. I have brought these issues forward so we can all have the very necessary conversation about the dismal state of our education system.”

King, however, agreed to speak with SC News on Monday.

He stood by his previous comments that equity can sometimes result in groups being discriminated against.

King said he sees two different kinds of equity. The first kind he described is where all students get what they need to succeed.

“The other is ‘Well, we need to discriminate against some to make things have equal outcomes,’” he said.

King also said he felt that his comments about homeless students or students with drug addict parents having limited potential were misinterpreted.

“We need to, rationally, focus the limited resources we have to help everybody to do as well as they can,” he said. “But some of the reactions, I think, even from Principal Washington, was that I wanted them to have no resources.”

King said that if the issue is brought up again, he would not vote for the revisions presented by Foster.

“I’m very willing to let the whole subject go in terms of board action,” he said.

Ed. Notes:

• You can watch video of the study session at this link; the study session begins approximately one hour into the video.
• Satin-Deseree Arnett was a candidate for the Stanwood-Camano School Board in the August 2023 primary election; Steve King was one of her opponents.