WHIDBEY NEWS-TIMES: Erik Mann resigns from school board

Rachel Rosen reports from the Oak Harbor School District board meeting of Nov. 28, 2022.

More change is coming to the Oak Harbor School Board as a longtime member resigned to take a job in a more tropical location.

Vice President Erik Mann announced his resignation from the board at Monday’s meeting…

They Said It

Mann said some of his greatest accomplishments on the board include improving relationships between the board and school employees… “I’m extremely proud of having that trusting relationship,” he said.

He was also proud of the way the district handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been held up statewide at our conferences as a district who managed very well considering all the challenges that were put in front of us,” he said.

The biggest challenge he faced as a board member was the problem of misinformation in regards to the pandemic and the rules and requirements that the state had for schools.

“We had a lot of decisions to make that people didn’t agree with, and it may be because they didn’t have the chance to see all the information that we had to process,” he said.

Mann noted that there has been more of a spotlight on the school board over the past couple of years.

“Five years ago, when I joined the board, if we had an audience member it was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’” he said…

Mann wanted to voice his support for the upcoming school bond measure, which will be on the ballot in February.

“All of our elementary schools are old, and we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leverage 80% of funding for two schools,” he said…. “I would really hate to see the next generation of kids growing up in the same old schools that I went to,” he said.

“This is an incredible loss for our board,” [recently appointed Director Nikki] Tesch said.

Superintendent Michelle Kuss-Cybula said the next board member has “some big shoes to fill.”