Shoreline Unified School District Superintendent Bob Raines, accompanied by a single board member, took the hot seat at the West Marin School gym on Tuesday night to discuss with parents and teachers the recent conflicts at the school.
Parents are circulating a petition declaring a vote no confidence in Mr. Raines and the district’s school board, following its indication that it might fire Principal Matt Nagle, who is cheered by many at the school.
Both parents and district teachers were heated on Tuesday night, united in their discontent with the board.
They called for trustees to commit to visiting the school more often and to put more weight in parent and staff input, especially in regard to administration staffing changes.
Many also spoke in favor of Mr. Nagle, sharing personal anecdotes of his commitment to the school and its students. Concern about his future at West Marin ran high, and there were calls for an overhaul of the evaluation process for his position as well as for his employment status to be disclosed as soon as possible—especially given that the end of the school year is fast approaching.
“Among parents, the word is ‘blindsided,’” said Kasandra Semorile, president of the Parent Teacher Student Association. “Maybe there are reasons behind the scene, but we are here every day with him, and Matt has a lot of support. So it’s confusing to hear that this possible decision will be made. It’s scary as a parent because this is someone my kids love. Why? Why would you disrupt the school?”
The district sent Mr. Nagle a notice in March that the terms of his employment may change. (Principals are hired on one-year contracts.) The letter listed issues with his leadership and behavior, but did not cite any specific complaints.
The board, which is responsible for renewing principals’ contracts at the recommendation of a district superintendent, has until June 30 to take action.
The notice came after Mr. Nagle’s announcement that he is challenging longtime incumbent Mary Jane Burke for her seat as county superintendent of schools.
At Tuesday’s meeting, which Mr. Nagle also attended, he acknowledged that his statements to this newspaper when he made his announcement, in which he compared Ms. Burke (who has held her position since 1994) to Fidel Castro, had angered many.
“People who live here didn’t like that graphic, that optic, that comment, but you are going to have to disprove that connection,” he said. “She is very beloved by many people, but not by me—that’s why I’m running against her.”
Many have suspected that the board’s consideration of firing Mr. Nagle came as retaliation to his decision to run for the position.
Parents, teachers and even Dance Palace representatives defended Mr. Nagle on number of specific issues on Tuesday night, including one regarding bussing students to afterschool programs at the Dance Palace and his handling of the letter from board president Jill Manning Sartori that was published in this newspaper only in English, yet addressed the school community.
Throughout the evening, Mr. Raines and board member Avito Miranda made a few concessions.
Mr. Raines emphasized that parents could call, text or email him their feedback and that he would try to come to the school more often. (West Marin School, which also has an Inverness campus, is one of three elementary schools in the sprawling coastal district, along with Tomales and Bodega Bay Elementary Schools.)
Mr. Raines assured the crowd that he would personally see to it that all school-wide correspondence would be printed in both Spanish and English from now on.
Concerning Mr. Nagle, he said there were a lot of things that fall under personnel issues that he couldn’t talk about, regardless of what Mr. Nagle chose to make public.
Mr. Miranda’s board seat represents the area including Inverness, Point Reyes Station and Olema. An Inverness resident with two children who attended the district, he ran for his seat in order to represent the district’s Latino majority.
“Thank you guys for coming here and screaming all you need to scream,” he said on Tuesday. “I’ve been on the other side, and it’s a big frustration. I know you are screaming to me because you are here for your kids, that’s the most important thing.”
Yet Mr. Miranda also made a number of blunders and disrupted what would have been a peaceful end to a warring meeting when, in the final minutes, he raised the issue of the letter Ms. Sartori sent to the Light. He placed blame on Mr. Nagle for not making sure the letter was in Spanish.
Many parents and teachers expressed disappointment that another board member had not attended the meeting.
Mr. Raines said he had invited others, and explained that more than three trustees in attendance would have turned the meeting into a board meeting, where there cannot be a back-and-forth conversation with the public.