Stalemate on Vancouver school board

Vancouver Public Schools board timeline

o Dec. 9: School board director Mari Greves announced her early retirement after 20 years on the board. Her position expires in November.

o Dec. 10-Jan. 12: School board invited applications to replace Greves as board member. Six candidates applied, but one later withdrew.

o Jan. 28: Five candidates were interviewed by the board in a public meeting.

o Feb. 10: Board appointed applicant Nada Wheelock to replace Greves. Wheelock was expected to serve until after the Nov. 3 general election.

o June 24: Wheelock was named interim executive director of the Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools. Her new job began July 15.

o July 14: To avoid a conflict of interest, Wheelock resigned as a school director.

o Aug. 4: School directors met in a workshop to discuss replacing Wheelock. The board was unable to reach consensus on the application timeline. The board decided to table the discussion until its Aug. 26 board retreat.

o Aug. 26: Board retreat agenda includes discussion on procedure for replacing Wheelock. The board will not announce the application process until after the board retreat.

o Mid-October: The deadline for the school board to appoint a new director to the position.

o Nov. 3: General election. Although Wheelock will be listed on the ballot, she is no longer running. Rosemary Fryer, a retired teacher, is on the ballot and is running.

The Vancouver Public Schools board is deadlocked 2-2 in appointing a replacement for a board member who resigned last month.

If the board fails to appoint a fifth board member in time, state law dictates the decision can be taken over by Educational Service District 112, said Heidi Maynard of the Washington State School Directors’ Association.

The four school directors failed to reach consensus at a work session Tuesday. The only decision they made was to discuss the board’s appointment process further at the Aug. 26 board retreat.

Superintendent Steve Webb noted that he had asked the district’s legal counsel, Marilee Scarbrough, to sit in Tuesday.

“Nada Wheelock resigned July 14. That’s when the 90-day clock started,” Scarbrough said.

Wheelock was appointed Feb. 10 to replace Mari Greves, who retired after 20 years on the board.

Mark Stoker, board president, said he hoped to post the position immediately, with an Aug. 14 application deadline. Dale Rice agreed with Stoker.

However, board members Edri Geiger and Kathy Gillespie expressed concern that a 10-day application timeline, in August when many people are on vacation, was too short. When Wheelock was appointed, the application period was about a month.

Webb wrote in an email to Stoker after the meeting: “I strongly recommend that the board comply with RCW 28A.342.370 (the state law) and fulfill your codified responsibility. Both the letter of the law and legislative intent warrants action.”

Stoker shared the email with The Columbian.

The new appointed board member will serve until the Nov. 3 general election.

Ballot complication

Even though Wheelock has resigned and is not running for the school board position, her name will still be listed on the general election ballot. Removing Wheelock’s name from the ballot would take a court order.

The other candidate listed on the ballot is Rosemary Fryer, a teacher with almost 40 years of experience who recently retired from Evergreen Public Schools. She taught for a year at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver but was part of a previous reduction in force layoff.

Voters can vote for Wheelock, but if she wins, the school board will appoint someone for the interim for two years. Then they would have to run another election.

“I am really the viable candidate,” Fryer said.

Fryer, who also holds an administrative credential, said she directed a $1 million grant for three years and has a working knowledge of finance, school law and budgets.