COUPEVILLE: Dean of students loses job in budget cuts despite outcry (WNT)

Luisa Loi reports for the Whidbey News-Times from the Coupeville School District board meeting of Thu., Jun. 29, 2023.

A community outcry to save the job of Coupeville School District’s longtime dean of students failed to persuade school leaders.

A group of people attended the school board meeting Thursday night to show their support for Tom Black, dean of students whose position was eliminated in the latest round of budget cuts announced on June 21…

Facing declining revenues, the school board earlier this year instructed Superintendent Steve King to reduce expenditures by up to $1.45 million for the 2023-2024 school year. Black’s position was announced in the latest round of cuts. The savings for eliminating his position is listed in school documents as $85,000 a year.

Thursday night, about two dozen people attended the school board meeting to voice support for Black. Parents of former and current students became emotional when crediting Black with helping their children through times of mental hardship and helping them graduate.

They Said It

The district runs a noted food program that “focuses on scratch cooking with whole foods and local sourcing of food when available and cost effective,” the school website states. The food service director and the assistant food service director make, respectively, $100,213 and $79,475 a year, King wrote in an email sent to The Whidbey News-Times. The entire budget for food services is $863,155, with revenues projected to be $525,532. Additionally, the Connected Food Program has already seen about $130,000 in reductions.

“Any further reductions could lead to less student and staff participation in the program which would negatively impact our budget by reducing our revenues,” King wrote, adding that the director’s salary is comparable to that of the food directors at the Oak Harbor and South Whidbey school districts.

The superintendent also wrote that the relocation of the tennis court and and parking improvements were approved by voters and that capital project funds must be used for what was advertised during the election, and not to pay for staff or other items that were not included on the ballot.

In response to the testimonies given at the board meeting, King acknowledged people’s frustrations and concerns.

“It’s upsetting for me, it’s upsetting for our staff, and it’s upsetting for our community,” he said at the meeting. “This is the place we have to make these reductions. And I think it’s extremely unfortunate given everything our students and staff have been through the last few years … our students need better services, but unfortunately that’s not the way things are working out. I don’t think I support one decision that I’ve made during this budget process, none of them are good ideas. But bad ideas have to happen right now.”

…King told The Whidbey News-Times that the decision is likely to be final. “The board could always reconsider and give me direction to change things however with the current budget situation, it is unlikely that we will be in a position to reverse reductions,” he wrote in an email.

[Ed. Note: The Coupeville Superintendent is not the same Steve King that is running for a Director-At-Large Position 5 in the Stanwood-Camano School District.]

On the Ballot in 2023