The case of the Titanic illustrates how often failures result more from a succession of omissions and missteps than one big mess-up.
Like the Titanic, the Clover Park School District Board of Directors is navigating treacherous waters and there have been recently what appear to be a succession of omissions and missteps.
According to researchers, a little brass key could have saved everyone on the RMS Titanic.
But because the key that fit a locker on board the Titanic where the crow’s nest binoculars were kept was in the possession of Second Officer David Blair back in Southampton – given Blair had been replaced by the more senior officer Charles Lightoller and Blair had forgotten to give his replacement the key – the iceberg that took down the Titanic off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland might have been seen with those binoculars before it became too late.
Some dispute the significance of the key that would have provided access to the binoculars; they argue that the Titanic was moving too fast anyway as it sailed toward New York.
Captain Edward J. Smith had hoped to best the crossing time of the Olympic, the Titanic’s sister ship.
Nevertheless, the lack of the key factored into a longer litany of missteps that would together result in the tragic loss of 1,514 lives April 14 and 15, 1912 in the frigid seas of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Like the Titanic, the Clover Park School District Board of Directors is navigating treacherous waters.
With 11,865 school children on board, the stakes are high, and the warnings are many.
The emails, letters, public disclosure documents, petitions, articles, comments, reactions, and publications nationally focused on the Clover Park School District have a sinister parallel to the marconigrams sent and received by the Titanic’s Captain Smith, wireless messages, the missives shouting the hard, cold facts of the Titanic’s impending doom.
Decide for yourself, in reading the following, if these should be warnings to the tax-paying public and the parents of children attending Clover Park Schools that all is not well.
December 14, 2020 – Regular meeting of the Clover Park School District during which Director Paul Wagemann said “crack the whip” in reference to his fellow board directors to do an even better job of helping youth graduate.
Week of December 14, 2020 – Taniesha Lyons’s letter to the school board demanding Wagemann’s resignation, charging Wagemann with “blatant bigotry and racism,” and calling Wagemann “an explicit racist” and “a considerable liability.”
Week of December 14, 2020 – Filma Fontanilla, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, on behalf of (and signed by the members of) the Executive Board of Clover Park Education Association (CPEA), sends a letter to the school board in which Fontanilla writes “I was hurt, appalled and disgusted with the comment ‘crack the whip’ made by Paul Wagemann.”
December 18, 2020 – Published: Letter: Clover Park School Board member’s resignation demanded | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com)
This article linked above details – from a phone interview – what Wagemann meant by his use of the phrase “crack the whip,” and the reaction to his comment. This story would be picked up by news publications across the country.
December 21, 2020 – A special meeting of the school board is called for directors to discuss what Wagemann had to say. The official minutes of this meeting would reflect the statements of each of the Board of Directors except the explanation that Paul Wagemann gave for the context of his “crack the whip” statement made on December 14. Not one word in the minutes of the meeting is attributed to Wagemann. But an audio recording reveals that Wagemann had indeed a great deal to say.
December 21, 2020 – Public Disclosure Request (PDR) is made – and acknowledged as received by the Clover Park School District – for “All emails and correspondence and board meeting minutes related to Paul Wagemann’s alleged ‘crack the whip’ comment.”
December 28, 2020 – The school district sends only one letter in response to the PDR, that letter being the letter from Taniesha Lyons. The school district then declares the PDR closed.
December 28, 2020 – An appeal is immediately made that in fact the PDR should not be closed, that several documents requested had not been received.
January 5, 2021 – Published: Letter: LIVE or DIE | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com).
In this article it is noted that the PDR was incomplete. The next day, January 6, the PDR is reopened.
January 10, 2021 – Published: Letter: Questions For The Clover Park School District Board | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com)
In this article the Executive Board of the Clover Park Education Association (CPEA) associated Wagemann’s “comment and thinking” as that which subjects students and their families “with the abuses and atrocities of institutional racism.”
January 11, 2021 – Regular meeting of the school board where Wagemann asks for background information on the consultant providing the training for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). With the exception of providing the link to the consultant’s website, Wagemann’s request is denied by his fellow school board directors.
January 15, 2021 – Published: Letter: Who – And What – Is Behind The Equity, Diversity And Inclusion Training For The Clover Park School District? | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com)
This article looks into the background of the consultant, something the school board did not do.
January 22, 2021 – CPSD releases documents in keeping with the PDR, 743 emails in all, and the CPSD school board minutes for the evening of December 21, 2020.
January 25, 2021 – Published: Letter: The CPSD, Emails and Groupthink? | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com)
There is a question raised in this article as to who was behind the 86 carbon copy letters received by the school board that supposedly found School Board Director Paul Wagemann’s “crack the whip” comment “racist and absolutely unacceptable.”
January 27, 2021 – Published: Letter: What’s Going On? | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com)
Turns out it was Deb Hansen, President of the Clover Park Education Association (CPEA), who solicited from association’s members their signatures on a template she provided that suggested Wagemann’s “crack the whip” comment was, in Hansen’s words, referring “to times when white owners would whip enslaved Black people.”
That reference of Hansen’s however was totally out of context with the explanation Wagemann gave at the December 21, 2020 school board meeting.
The public however is not able to read what Wagemann had to say or the context in which he said it as the school board declined to make that known in their minutes as reflected in this next article.
February 10, 2021 – Published: Letter: Censorship and the CPSDB | The Suburban Times (thesubtimes.com)
This is a developing story.
While the key to the crow’s nest binoculars was in the possession of a sailor not on board the Titanic, the key to trust is in the possession of those at the helm of the Clover Park School District.
The result, however, is the same.
The public’s ability to see the truth appears to be locked away.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
Connect the ‘nots’
When Wagemann made his “crack the whip” comment on December 14, 2020, did Shafer assume the best of intentions of his fellow board director with whom he had served for over a decade?
No, he did not.
Rather Shafer called for a special meeting to deal with the issue which no doubt was influenced by a letter received that same week from a candidate for school board who had lost to Wagemann in the recent election, a letter in which she charged Wagemann with “blatant bigotry and racism,” calling Wagemann “an explicit racist” and “a considerable liability.”
At that special meeting on December 21, 2020 were Wagemann’s comments – any of his comments – recorded in the minutes along with the comments of each of his fellow board directors, and even those of Superintendent Banner?
No, they were not.
When a Public Disclosure Request for “All emails and correspondence and board meeting minutes related to Paul Wagemann’s alleged ‘crack the whip’ comment” was made on December 21, were requested documents received?
No, they were not.
Not until an article appeared in this publication on January 5 questioning the district as to the whereabouts of those documents did the district comply.
When Wagemann asked on January 11, 2021 that his fellow board directors investigate the background of the consultant providing EDI training in the district, did they?
No, they did not.
When on February 8, 2021 Wagemann asked in the interest of “transparency” that the board include his comments in the minutes made the evening of December 21, 2020 – along with the comments made by every other single board member including the Superintendent’s – did they?
No, they did not.
Mr. Anderson,
Excellent investigative reporting. Your persistence is admirable.
The Clover Park School Board and those putting pressure on the Board appear to be spineless and alergic to the truth thereby causing the school board to take on an offensive smell.
Do I believe in equality and equitable treatment of all, regardless of race or color? Yes, I do. I have fought for that.
Do I believe people of any race or color should milk the past by shouting 1/2 truths, lies, and clichés to create reverse discrimination, harm, and offensive behavior. No I do not.
I wish you well sir, in finding the key so the Titanic does not sink again.
Joseph Boyle – Former Lakeweood Resident 51 Years
This kind of thing is why so few truly smart people get involved in government or public service. There is more money to be made in the private sector with only half the headaches.
Very well done sir. Thank you.
Makes one wonder what else may be routinely diverting attention from educating students.
This entire controversy is outrageous. “Crack the whip” has no more racial overtones than “Get their butts in gear,” “nose to the grindstone,” “Chicken out,” “light a fire under them,” “cattywampus,” “riding shotgun,” or any number of other colloquialisms.
Racism is real and should be eliminated, but seeing everything as racist can be just as destructive.
David, thank you for your excellent investigative reporting and tenacious pursuit of transparency regarding recent actions and omissions of the Clover Park School District Board of Directors. Your reports are a valuable service to our community. Although I have commented on some of your previous reports on these matters, our family has reached the point that we are so disgusted with the behavior of school board directors regarding fellow director, Paul Wagemann, that I have run out of words to describe our disgust. Yes, any trust we had in the board is highly eroded. All the more reason to send our children and grandchildren to private schools, or to charter schools if freedom of choice were allowed.
FACT: Racism is very real…..from people of ALL races.
Reference my letter, “On Racism” sent to the Suburban Times:
https://thesubtimes.com/2020/09/10/letter-on-racism/
That letter was written in response to the idiocy that was occurring throughout our country at that time, and, unfortunately, continues to this very day.
Now there is more idiocy in the city where I live and have lived for over 33 years.
In my view, this board of “education” has failed completely in being educators themselves, as evidenced by their lack of being forthcoming (a.k.a, honest) in educating the Lakewood Public about the “complete and accurate history” of this incident.
Nor have they taken steps to ensure ALL of our children have been properly educated, as evidenced by the fact that far-too-many Clover Park students are failing to graduate; and, also, far-too-many have “graduated” without being competent in basic life and academic skills.
How do I know that to be true?
I have been an educator for over 22 years:
Full-time US Army Instructor for Computer Repair
Full-time US Army NCO, training soldiers in their Duties
Full-time US Army Warrant Officer, ditto
Part-time City Colleges of Chicago Instructor for Systems Analysis & Programming
Full-time CP Tech College Information-Tech Instructor
Full-time CP Tech College Institutional Researcher
In these two latter positions I learned about the lack-of-educating being done by the WHOLE WA state K-12 system. Unfortunately, as a Colleg Instructor, I was frequently burdened with having to re-teach so-called high school “graduates” (including ones from CPSD) with skills they would most certainly need to be successful in the work world. For instance, how to:
• ACCURATELY use BASIC MATH (e.g., how to perform a simple percentage-calculation).
• Do research on a topic, as in READ from multiple sources, COLLECT PERTINENT FACTS, and DRAW a FAULTLESS, MEANINGFUL, and USEFUL CONCLUSION.
• Document work activities, write a report/letter/memorandum, etc. in CORRECT ENGLISH and use CORRECT PUNCTUATION.
• Give a short PRESENTATION..
• Be organized.
• Act as an ADULT.
And even in retirement I continue to be an educator by passing on newly learned skills…..
I have given three full-day lectures about World War I to high school students from the North Shore School District. I have also given an hour-long lecture about Mycology (mushrooms) to college Ecology students and to a local mushroom club. Once we get past COVID I am on-tap to continue performing these enjoyable, voluntary “sharings”.
My point….both educating and being educated are life-long activities, meaning they are to be accomplished ad infinitum. The CPSD Board must recognize that and get on with the job of fulfilling their responsibilities, and put a stop to this nonsense!
PS…Mr Anderson…thank YOU for educating US about this abysmal circumstance. I COMPLETELY agree with all aforesaid comments.
one more time
Thank you Eric, and all the others commenting here and previously in this series – both for and against as having this debate matters – about the importance – the life-long importance – of actually emphasizing, implementing, and staying true to our primary purpose, that of education.
Stay tuned for a forthcoming article.
An excerpt:
“It takes courage to face a duelist with a pistol and it takes courage to face a British general with an army. But it takes still greater and far higher courage to face friends with a grievance.” – Harry S. Truman