Submitted by Paul Wulfestieg.
The Clover Park School Board recently passed the Focus on Equity plan for the school district. The plan was studied and worked on by a group of outstanding educators and parents over many months. The vote of the board was 4 to 1 in favor of approval. The lone dissenting vote was from board member Paul Wagemann, who is frequently in the minority. The Equity plan is centered on the commitment to create and foster learning environments that support student achievement and empowerment through equity, diversity and inclusion. It is about improving the opportunities for ALL students to succeed. The Equity plan has received strong support from both the Lakewood City Council and the Commander of JBLM. Powerful statements were given underscoring the goal of our community and schools to better address and meet the needs of our very diverse community. Clover Park has one of the most diverse student populations in the state. If our goal is to improve academic achievement, we must do a better job of understanding the needs of our students, and the challenges they face every day.
Many letters, followed by antagonistic and inflammatory comments, have been written in the Suburban Times personally attacking our current school board members, our outstanding Superintendent, and their efforts to establish a positive and equitable learning environment.
Many are written by the very same donors and supporters of the two candidates opposing our current board members Marty Schafer and Alyssa Anderson Pearson. Some of the misleading letters have been written by discredited individuals who don’t even live in our school district. The challengers and their supporters have cherry picked facts and used old statistics to misinform and bias voter perceptions. They wrongly claim that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is part of the curriculum that is being taught to Clover Park students. IT IS NOT NOW AND NEVER HAS BEEN! A well organized group of extremists are calling any plan dealing with equity, diversity and inclusion a Marxist idea with the intent of turning students into communists. They claim that anything having to do with race is in itself “racist”. They claim Equity for students will result in minority students turning against the white race. Nothing could be further from the truth! They also claim that white students will be made to feel guilty and ashamed of their race. This fearmongering is intentional and comes from well organized influences within our community, and outside our community, whose intent is to make CRT a cultural war by scaring white voters. CRT is a trigger word for their base of supporters. These tactics, lies and claims to gain control of school boards are creating chaos all across the country. Fox news commentators, supremacist groups and others associated with radical extremists are making the exact same claims we hear spoken by the supporters and donors of the two candidates challenging our board members. Their goal, along with Paul Wagemann, is to capture a majority on the school board in order to achieve the objectives of the group of individuals that is really supporting them.
We should all have deep concerns about the welfare of our students and schools after hearing board member Wagemann say that Equity was a Marxist concept and that he was strongly against the Equity plan. He suggests that if you give additional help to students in need then, as a result, other students would receive less. This is a false assumption. If Marty Schafer and Alyssa Anderson Pearson are not re-elected, Mr. Wagemann and the two challengers he endorses, along with other extreme elements, will gain control of our school board! They will then be able to influence the selection of text books and curriculum to conform to their misguided interests. They would also have the opportunity to fire our dedicated and highly respected Superintendent. It is clear that this is a very well organized, and well funded, aggressive political attack against our current outstanding school board.
If you are concerned about the success of our students in our schools, become informed voters! Don’t listen to the negative rhetoric and attacks against our school board. Talk to your friends and neighbors here in Lakewood and alert them to what is happening. MARTY SCHAFER and ALYSSA ANDERSON PEARSON need your support, and your vote, in order to be re-elected. These two current board members have shown that they are prudent conservatives, but not extremists. They refuse to make their voluntary positions political! They will continue to stand up for what is needed for students and families in our school district. PLEASE VOTE by November 2nd for MARTY SCHAFER and ALYSSA ANDERSON PEARSON.
I wish I could cast a vote to help. I believe in what is being offered and done, not what is being whispered in private.
Mr. Wulfestieg,
Thank you for placing our students and schools above any personal political agenda. We must keep politics out! It is crystal clear that Alyssa Pearson and Marty Schafer make that a priority and stood up for our students in the face of ugly personal attacks. They deserve to be re-elected.
I totally disagree with your letter.
“….. cherry picked facts and used old statistics to misinform and bias voter perceptions.”?
Oh really? So you think that the OSPI statistics and those found elsewhere dealing with District performance are cherry picked? For review here are the facts, the whole facts and nothing but the facts for the District:
50.6% of students are grade level for English Language Arts (ELA)
38.4% of students are grade level for Math
39.8% of students are grade level for Science
85.4% of students attend class regularly
88% of students graduate after 4 years
35% District academic standing (160th out of 247)
These statistics by any measure are a failure not only in terms of academic performance but also in terms of student preparedness after the leave high school. That failure lies at the feet of the school Board. They are not something for incumbent Board members to be proud about. Dispute them with facts not rhetoric if you can.
No one to my knowledge has claimed that CRT is part of the student curriculum. This is a very common deception by CRT apologists. What you raise is a “red herring”. Please provide the quotes which support your assertion if you can. The truth is that teachers, staff and administrators will have CRT in their professional development curriculum in the form of CRT training mandated by the State. If you don’t think that this teacher training won’t influence how subjects are taught and how students are treated then you’ve purposely closed your eyes to that fact. Equity, inclusion and diversity are all concepts which are integral to CRT: they all have the same political DNA.
When the incumbents are replaced, parents will have a direct line of communication to those they elected as their representatives and their input for their children’s education will be taken seriously. That is not the case today. As an example, the current “equity policy” was developed using a stakeholders group composed of less than 8% of parents and as much as 80% of administrators, teachers, staff and outside District interests. Maybe this is the reason for parental push back not only in CPSD but across the country.
Mr. Arbeeny.
Please educate yourself before commenting. Your complete ignorance about test scores is embarrassing and tiresome. It is easy to see you go off the rails when anyone corrects your constant lies.
Your data is absolutely cherry picked and also purposely twisted with the intent of convincing voters we are giving worthless diplomas to students who are failing. You, David Anderson, Jeff Brown and Paul Wageman are all saying the same things.
If a student who takes the math and ELA tests in 10th grade (the last year they take these two tests), and if that student tests below standard at that time, you, Brown and Anderson label that student as incapable of learning for the next two years of high-school. You use 2 year old data to humiliate students!
Those state test scores are used like a dipstick is used to check the level of oil in a car; if it is low, then you do something about it. That student needs instructional support over the next 2 years! That is what they are receiving. However, you and your like minded buddies claim that if those same students receive a diploma, they don’t deserve it! Where is your data to support the claim that our diplomas are worthless! What is wrong with you and these two candidates?!
The current school board saw the need to provide different pathways to graduation for those students who are not interested in college. They increased vocational training and created different career pathways so at graduation, students now have more opportunities, not less! It was a major mistake made years ago in the late 1990’s to remove vocational opportunities for students! Not all students are good test takers nor do all want to go to college! We need students to graduate with employable skills, confidence and the promise of a better future… that is what this school board is all about.
I doubt anything I said will be heard by you. I have never witnessed a more dishonest or ugly school board campaign in the many years I have lived in Lakewood. That ugliness came directly from the Anderson and Brown campaigns.
Paul Wulfestieg spoke the truth in his letter.
So facts don’t count if you don’t want them to? How were they “twisted” other than by you and others who discount them for being inconvenient to your point of view? What are you using as a measure of success in their place? These statistics have nothing to do with humiliating students but rather to identify systemic problems within the District before action is taken.
Not once in 123 Board meeting minutes that I researched did I see anything that remotely addressed these statistics. If you don’t define the problem then any “solution” embarked upon is moot especially when the Board President Schafer disavows debate on the issues.
Diplomas are only worth the value of the education behind them. Do you dispute that diploma from Steilacoom High School (65% vs. CPHS 35% academic standing; spending per student $3000 less than CPHS; student per teacher 24 vs. 18 CPHS) has the same value as one from Clover Park? Don’t kid yourself! College recruiters go where there is success not failure. Sadly those superior students at CPHS won’t get a first look due to more competitive schools and valued diplomas.
That’s one of the inequities of “equity” that we are already living with. Graduation inflation and monetary inflation both rob value and make everyone poorer. Until you can come to grips with the facts and reality of CPSD academic performance, its primary function, all the other peripheral issues you raise are irrelevant “window dressing”.
Another misguided hit piece from a person, who upon further investigation, is a left of center progressive that is out of touch with the parents in the school district. Due to his extremest nonfactual opinions, he is unfit to fairly critique any candidates running for school board.
So let’s all look at the website for the Superintendent of Public Instruction for some actual facts. Clover Park School district is not making the grade. Only 38.4% are proficient in Math, and only 39.8% are proficient in Science. Barely 50% are proficient in Common Core. At these dismal ratings, Clover Park School District is one of the most expensive at $15,296 cost per student. The school district adjacent to this one has proficiency ratings near 70% across the board with a cost per student of $3,000 less. This information is on the Superintendent of Public Instruction website: https://washingtonstatereportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ReportCard/ViewSchoolOrDistrict/100047
Students need to be taught academics.
The focus needs to be academics so they will be able to be successful when they enter college and beyond.. The existing school board has failed these children miserably. The parents of Clover Park School District deserve better.
For the children please vote for David Anderson and Jeff Brown.
MJ
Please provide us with the grade level tests associated with the percentages you quoted. It makes a difference. Data requires analysis as do claims made by people.
Remember the old toothpaste commercials that claimed 5 out of 6 dentists surveyed recommend Crest? Critical thinkers question how many dentists were actually surveyed. Who picked the dentists?
David Anderson and Jeff Brown seem to be at a very low ability level to analysis data and that should trouble everyone. They have flat out lied using data to create fear and to support their narrative.
Since you are familiar with the OSPI site. Go to the section where all of the standards are written for every grade K-12. You will see that the state requires ALL schools to teach these standards. It is not optional! So, how is it you, Anderson and Brown claim reading, writing and math are not being taught? The “go back to basics” solution is another popular low information sound bite being used by Anderson and Brown. They have failed to articulate any plan!
While you are checking out the OSPI site further, head to the statistics for kindergarten readiness. Kindergarten students are assessed for readiness in many areas. Only 39% of kindergarten children entering our Clover Park schools for the first time are assessed as being ready or beyond. That is a shocking percentage!
61 % of kindergarten students need immediate support. They go on to say that readiness is a huge factor in determining academic success. Let that sink in. Clover Park has a giant undertaking to get these students to grade level and to graduation on time. That is why extra support for these students must be provided all along their way to graduation, if needed. This is what the Equity plan is intended to do. You, Anderson and Brown don’t want that for our students. All of you mock the accomplishments of our students, teachers and school board. Why?
How come an adjacent (geographically) school district is near 70% proficiency? No excuses are to be made for these dismal scores. The students are being cheated of the education that they deserve. They are not adequately being prepared for their future and will suffer throughout life because this district chose not to focus on academics.
You are making excuses for the failing grades. I am sorry, but parents want better for their children. They want a school board that will work to bring these numbers up. They want a school board that will work for the best interest of the students instead of your failed ideology. Why do you want kids to be pushed through without making the grade?
I think the poor performance of the district speaks for itself. Why now are you changing things at the district if you have done such an outstanding job all along? I have a hard time listening to incumbents talk about inclusion, diversity, and all these other topics when they have been in control for years and have done nothing until now to fix issues. It sounds like the district has failed and is now trying to fix the problems, and it is too late and not the correct fix.
I would prefer to see Clover Park School District begin teaching good old Civics – how our government should operate, what it means to be an American Citizen, and our responsibilities under the laws of the land than this new divisive diversity training that teaches nothing about responsibility and all about how to be a victim.
Seems Clover Park is in the same boat as the government. In case you have not noticed, folks, we live in a time when right is wrong and wrong is right.
,I say, GOD help us all. Our country is gong left and apparently so is the school board..
Very thoughtful and well written. I have serious doubts about people who continue to believe that CRT is taught in elementary thru high school… obviously they’re quite GULLIBLE. They might consider RESEARCH.
Nice job, Paul. Thanks for that.
Thank you for the excellent, cogent letter Mr. Wulfestieg. The exact words and arguments Jeff Brown, David Anderson, Mr. Arbeany, and his minions have been repeating over and over are being used in school board elections all over the country, including next door in University Place.
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Among psychologists something like this is known as the “illusion of truth” effect.
Believe that it is happening here.
Paul,
I very much appreciated your thoughtful essay. I think those loud, bombastic criticisms you are getting come from people who are the poster children for confirmation bias.
Thank you, Mr. Wulfestieg, for your respectful and well-reasoned letter.
Thanks Paul for a very thoughtful and accurate depiction of the current state of affairs with the school board and the district itself. The misinformation about equity and the people who spread it have been exposed for all to see. It’s time to vote to make sure Marty and Alyssa remain on the board and ensure the district does not go off a political cliff.
“Fox news commentators, supremacist groups and others associated with radical extremists are making the exact same claims we hear spoken by the supporters and donors of the two candidates challenging our board members….” I wonder do you also include as “radical extremists” Bible- believing Christians? If so, you are marginalizing a large segment of our community and shows us a lot about the darkness in your heart. Your whole diatribe is very offensive to me as a mother and grandmother. Of course parents should be involved in their children’s education, vote for best individuals in school boards and who are truly vested in improving students’ education. Sounds like most of school board members now are in for power, politics and keeping the same status quo. It is time for a change and vote the incumbents out.
Accusing others of what you yourself are guilty of doing is something the left excels at. In psychological terms it is called either “transference” or “projection” both of which are defense mechanisms. It’s the reason you so often hear a litany of pejoratives like hateful, disgusting, extremist, racist, bombastic, “ignorrant” (sic Dr. Alessio), etc. or other emotional reactions to a rational argument. When facts don’t fit their narrative……like test scores, attendance and grade completion, they wave them away with disdain yet seldom come up with any facts to back their argument. It’s all they’ve got: feelings nothing more than feelings……..