No decision on Evans dismissal

North Kitsap parents demand change from school board

Multiple community members in Poulsbo Thursday night addressed the North Kitsap School District board with a repeated request: dismiss Superintendent Laurynn Evans.

In wake of a criminal charge being filed against Evans Wednesday, speakers during the meeting’s public comment period repeatedly urged the board to make the superintendent’s current administrative leave permanent, sharing complaints that went beyond Evans’ suspected theft of campaign signs to a range of issues that include the recent departures of staff members, feelings of a lack of transparency or unequal treatment of certain groups, and failure of the Feb. 13 bond measure.

The school board may left some critics unsatisfied, adjourning the meeting with no discussion of the superintendent, no action related to the investigation and not holding an executive session that was listed on the meeting’s agenda. A board member confirmed after the meeting that no action will be taken before Evans’ scheduled court date this coming Wednesday, Feb. 28, pending the case’s resolution. But some speakers from the audience – a smaller crowd than attended a meeting two weeks earlier, when Evans was placed on paid administrative leave by a 4-0 vote, with one abstention – credited the board with beginning a healing process during a traumatic time for the community.

The board’s initial action during a study session set that tone. Discussion opened with several ways the school board intends to reform its own meeting processes to address a perception that transparency and listening have been lacking. Proposals include moving the regular meeting’s start time back from 5 p.m., to accommodate parents and community

“You have lost the community’s trust, and our trust,” one of the first speakers, a Kingston High student now attending Olympic College’s Running Start program, told the board, drawing sustained applause from the crowd at the district office. The student did call for Evans’ departure, but also shared ongoing concerns about inadequate class offerings at Kingston and the large number of students who transfer away from the school.

members who work, recording each school board meeting and making those videos available on the district’s website, and adding additional time to accept comments from the public.

“Each of us on the school board is dedicated to helping our community heal and move forward together,” school board member Bev Godfrey, one of two newer board members who were elected last fall, said in wake of Thursday’s session.

The board put the first of its changes into practice at the three-hour long meeting, opening two 30-minute periods to hear from community members. It was the first meeting of the board since a criminal charge against Evans was filed by the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office, and since the Feb. 13 bond election, in which nearly 64 percent of voters opposed the district’s $242 million bond proposal.

“You have lost the community’s trust, and our trust,” Laila McNamara, a Kingston High student now attending Olympic College’s Running Start program, told the board, drawing sustained applause from the crowd at the district office. The student did call for Evans’ departure, but also shared ongoing concerns about inadequate class offerings at Kingston and the large number of students who transfer away from the school.

Though one of the parties involved in reporting the sign incident, Kim Gerlach, forcefully demanded the board make a decision on Evans’ future, Scott Henden, the man who had placed the signs who went missing and a former board member, focused his comments on the board, encouraging them to continue opening paths of communication with constituents.

North Kitsap Education Association President Ted Jez, who’s organization had voted no confidence in Evans June 2023, acknowledged “a different atmosphere in the room tonight” and encouraged the board to respond to a bond failure he called “a giant scream from the community that things have to change.”

Another parent, Carissa Burk, shared her experience serving on a school board in Oregon years ago, where similar issues undermined trust between the district and the community. She pointed to reforms both being considered, like expanding public comment, and new ones like the idea of adding board seats to encourage more representation, specifically from minority communities, or starting new committees that can focus on inclusion, saying such solutions worked in her past experience. Burk urged the board to see parents, some of who are upset, as colleagues rather than adversaries, and also encouraged a change in leadership.

“Regardless of the (legal) outcome,” Burk said, referencing Evans, “she’s not able to be effective for the North Kitsap community.”

The other new school board member elected last fall, Stacy Mills, appeared emotional during her board report that followed the first public comment session. Mills shared that she has been a student, parent and now an elected leader for the North Kitsap School District. She pointed to an upcoming district meeting in April with the Suquamish Tribe, which formally opposed the last bond measure, as one of the ways she’s hopeful to start moving past the recent controversies and loss of support.

“This is important to me,” Mills said. “What we uphold has to be our kids’ education.”