Records show Stanwood-Camano school board plagued by ideological strife

STANWOOD — Upheaval from a politically motivated effort to take control of Stanwood-Camano Island School District’s board of directors has spilled over into the community.

Stanwood-Camano Island School District board members Betsy Foster, Al Schreiber and Steven King have repeatedly been asked by community members to resign.

The trio has ties to local Republican activist groups. School board elections in Washington are nonpartisan by state law.

School board divisions have resulted in infighting, the messy departure of district superintendent Deborah Rumbaugh and allegations that the board has routinely broken state law.

The Daily Herald reviewed hundreds of emails for this story. They show a board in disarray and Rumbaugh facing a barrage of criticism. Current board member Miranda Evans went so far as to say the board created a hostile workplace environment.

Other district officials, including Michael Hanna, principal of Utsalady Elementary School, had their job performance questioned by members of the school board. Hanna was put on leave by the district after Rumbaugh was directed to do so by the board.

Hanna was accused of not responding to a first-grade teacher’s concerns regarding children in her classroom. An independent fact-finding report into the incident released to the board on Jan. 21 stated that the district administration responded appropriately.

He returned to his position on Jan. 23 but not before a special public meeting, which some later called a “kangaroo court.”

According to the report, “Some Board members, staff, and community members displayed a troubling lack of empathy toward students” and “Demands were made to segregate and punish students who have disabilities and/or trauma, through no fault of their own.”

Some board members appeared to flaunt open meetings laws and routinely communicate and conduct meetings with private individuals who are advancing conservative policy goals.

Emails show board members expressing frustration over the lack of communication between directors and from the board president. Some say they were not made aware of what circumstances led to Rumbaugh’s resignation.

Records also show the formation of groups that occasionally received email forwards of internal school board communications. Board members also solicited and sought advice from individuals outside the district.

Some board members, including Foster, sought to hide some of these conversations, asking those who emailed them on their school board email accounts to reach them on private ones.

“Hi Friends please use my personal email most often,” Foster wrote to one group of supporters on May 30, 2024. “It’s better for everyone.”

Meanwhile, some board members sought to dismantle the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work. That intention spilled into the open during a March 19, 2024, meeting. That meeting contained derogatory references from Foster and King to students’ academic ability, suggesting that the lowest-performing students didn’t deserve to be invested in.

“In order to achieve another kind of equity, we have to discriminate against various population groups,” Foster said during the meeting.

Board vice president Steve King wondered why students with what he viewed as “limited potential” were getting a “large part” of school resources. The statements violated district policy, and the pair were admonished for it.

Since then, packed board meetings have been commonplace.

During the public comment portion of the Jan. 7 meeting, Camano Island resident Jan Decker called for Schreiber’s resignation.

“You don’t care about the children,” Decker said. “It seems your only agenda is to sow chaos and destroy the Stanwood-Camano School District.”

“Outside influences”

Parents concerned with the behavior and actions of Schreiber, Foster and King have taken to Facebook groups and board meetings to organize.

During a recent board meeting, one community member held a sign that called for the “Gang of Three” to resign on Jan. 7. Another meeting on Dec. 18, 2024 became so contentious a Snohomish County Sheriff’s deputy had to clear the room.

At issue at the meeting was the status of Rumbaugh as superintendent. Under what the district characterized as “mutual separation from service, not for cause,” her original departure date of June 30 changed to Jan. 1.

At another meeting, around 20 former school board members and superintendents stood up in unison to show their displeasure with the board’s issues.

“The board needs to be able to work together in a functional way and get back to focusing on the students of the school district, and they have to figure out how to do that,” former district superintendent Jean Shumate said in an interview on Jan. 7. “I feel like sometimes outside influences are influencing some people on the board, and I think there’s no place for that.”

Foster appeared to use a combination of emails and video meetings to bring some of her supporters together.

Foster forwarded work emails to her personal email account, which is not standard district practice. She also forwarded district emails to a group of people who supported her, as well as Stuart Hunt, a man who involved himself in school board business.

Hunt did not directly answer questions for this article.

Hunt has been a regular at school board meetings and in directors’ emails. Hunt sought at least two meetings with Foster and other board members. The first appeared to have happened on May 6, 2024, in an email with a subject line of “3 pm zoom contacts” — the meeting appeared to be between Hunt, Foster, King and former Republican state house candidate Randy Hayden. It’s unclear what they discussed or who actually joined the meeting.

When reached for comment, Hayden said he did not remember the May 6 meeting.

“I don’t think I was involved with that, okay?” Hayden said. “Like I said, May would be way back in May. I mean, it’s hard for me to recall, but I’m pretty sure I never had a meeting with the three of them.”

Hayden chairs the candidate recruitment committee of the Snohomish County Republican Party. Hayden, who is also a school board director in Darrington, reached out to Schreiber, records show.

Hayden told the Herald on Jan. 21 he also recruits candidates for an organization called “League of Our Own Washington,” which seeks to get women into political office. He said he worked with Foster on her election as her “mentor.”

League of Our Own Washington began in 2021 and supported the bids of at least six different winning Republican state legislature campaigns across the state. It also includes a number of winning school board candidates.

“Through our work,” the organization’s website states, “dozens of women who believe in limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility are improving their communities through public service.”

“Drilling down, focusing in”

Beyond being a regular in district administrators’ and directors’ email inboxes, Hunt also sought to influence Foster.

On July 5, Hunt requested a meeting with Foster and Schreiber at 3:30 p.m. That same day at 3:37 p.m., Foster forwarded an email from Hunt to Schreiber titled “Drilling down, focusing in.” In the email, Hunt stated, “After significant discussions, it is time to focus on procedures and outcomes. As we now discuss those, I offer the PATH forward.”

The document mostly appears to deal with the district’s state standardized test scores and blames Rumbaugh for what Hunt perceives as district failures.

“Dr Rumbaugh has repeatedly said that state testing does not measure everything they need to know, but does not offer a BETTER SOLUTION,” Hunt wrote.

He also added a call to action.

“We’ve had several discussions,” Hunt wrote, appearing to refer to conversations with board members. “It is now time to make decisions and roll them out.”

Hunt bemoans academic standards, Social and Emotional Learning and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion school policies in over 20 emails to district officials. In one instance, Hunt sent Foster questions to ask about the district’s equity team.

“It is NOT that you are bothering her or trying to be a nuisance, you are being professional as you ramp up your board knowledge and want to know the inner workings of the district,” Hunt wrote on June 19.

Later that day, Hunt sent seven documents to Foster arguing against social and emotional learning, one called “SEL and other nonsense responsible for dismal test scores.”

Evans said Hunt attended two Island County Women’s Republican Club meetings in her capacity as a school board member and candidate.

Teaching Social and Emotional Learning is state law and has been since Senate Bill 5082 was passed in 2019.

Social and Emotional Learning is defined by the state as a “process through which individuals build awareness and skills in managing emotions, setting goals, establishing relationships, and making responsible decisions that support success in school and in life,” the state’s Office of Public Instruction’s website says. “When we think of educating the whole child, their social and emotional development must be considered as a part of overall instruction.”

The Office of Public Instruction did not respond to questions for this story.

The school board director’s Oath of Office states board members, “will support the Constitution and Laws of the United States and the Constitution and Laws of the State of Washington.”

“Carefully not together”

The school board has broken into factions after the contentious March 19 meeting.

Schreiber, Foster and King represent a conservative majority and have sought to make changes on the board reflecting their political viewpoints. Charlotte Murry and Evans have been on the other side of many board arguments and disagreements over the past year.

Evans is frustrated with how she has been portrayed.

“I am a middle-of-the-road person, and I’ve always been a middle-of-the-road person,” Evans said in an interview. “They make me out to be this far-left person because they have absolutely no desire to actually follow appropriate process and policies.”

Foster, King and Schreiber also appeared at the Glen Morgan School Director Advocacy Training Session together on Feb. 8, 2024, and board members conversed with Republican officials from District 10 afterward. Morgan, once a school board director, convinced two other men also named Bob Ferguson to run in last year’s gubernatorial election.

Three board members at one event could be in violation of the state’s open meetings laws.

The Washington state open meetings law states an official meeting occurs when a quorum (majority) of a city council, board of county commissioners, or other governing body (including certain kinds of committees) gathers with the collective intent of transacting the governing body’s business.

“It is the intent of this chapter that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly,” according to the Revised Code of Washington chapter on open meetings.

State law is also clear about what an action entails, defining it as “including but not limited to receipt of public testimony, deliberations, discussions, considerations, reviews, evaluations and final actions.”

The three, “were there, but carefully not together,” King wrote in a Feb. 6, 2024, email to Roberta Stephani, who at the time was secretary for the Legislative District 10 Republican Party. In several emails in 2024, Foster demonstrated an understanding of quorums.

In one instance on April 9, 2024, she accused Rumbaugh of violating rules surrounding quorums.

“Meeting 3 directors together IS A QUARUM. Steve & I should both be present and included at your meeting today,” Foster wrote on April 9, 2024.

Rumbaugh wasn’t violating the law because she met with two directors which under state law is not considered a majority.

Foster reached out to Rumbaugh soon after being elected to ask about the legislative representative position on the board. The Stanwood School Board assigns one director to work with local, state and federal politicians to garner support for the district.

Murry filled that position from 2020 to 2024.

Murry, who serves as secretary general of the Snohomish County Labor Council, saw her position come under attack.

In a Feb. 1, 2024 email from Foster to King containing an attachment of Washington State School Directors’ Assocation onboarding material, Foster was clear about what she thought about Murry, writing that she “is the current VP is also the WSSDA rep and this is the stuff she is promoting to our State government and schools. Pushing Equity and Inclusion. Pretty sure you are not in favor of this narrative. I ran to be a board member to change this new Group-Think. My constituent’s are counting on me to dig into these subjects and eliminate them. Thus, I am asking again for you to support me with this endeavor and Nominate Me next week (if required) or the following meeting.”

Nine days later, Tom Miller, a former Edmonds police chief and resident of Camano Island, sent a letter to Rumbaugh, cc’ing the school board. In the letter, he says Murry holding the position could be a conflict of interest with her position within a local labor union.

Specifically, Miller references negotiations with the school’s teacher’s union.

“How can she be impartial and objective when she is involved in negotiating contracts, and policies that affect the Labor Council and its members,” Miller wrote.

Foster thanked Miller in a March 22 email, though it’s not clear for what. Neither Miller nor Foster answered questions for this story.

None of the unions Stanwood-Camano School District has contracts with are members of the Snohomish County Labor Council. Contract negotiations are between the unions and the district, with the board providing input, but not directly involved in the bargaining process.

“A funding argument”

Murry held the secretary general position for over three years.

The district took Miller’s letter seriously and had the district’s attorney issue a legal opinion on any potential conflict of interest. The law firm, Perkins Coie LLP, found none. Around that time, on March 21, Foster emailed Schreiber and Rumbaugh demanding legislative reports from Murry at every meeting.

Hanah Stiverson, associate director of Democracy Protection with Human Rights First, a national nonprofit, said the wider reactionary anti-mask movement of the early COVID era has morphed into an anti-public education movement. This movement targets teachers’ unions, the department of education, inclusive curriculum, and federal funding. Their ultimate goal is to dismantle public education through defunding strategies, including state voucher programs, Stiverson said.

“National teacher unions are bastions for equitable public-school environments for teachers and students, and these voucher programs ultimately take federal funding out of the public’s hands,” Stiverson said.

Increasing voucher programs is a goal of Project 2025, and six of President Donald Trump’s first set of executive orders dealt with education. The administration is also seeking to dismantle the Department of Education.

Email records show that many of the questions Foster peppered Rumbaugh with during her first year on the board dealt with how the district was spending money. Murry said many of the people who are now in support of Foster were also angry at board policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foster ended up with the legislative representative position for 2025 during a recent board vote, with Schreiber and King getting her the votes she needed to take the role during a Dec. 4, 2024 meeting.

Foster also belongs to a group of around 100 school board members in Washington. Its goal has seemingly to bring amendments to the state that align with conservative goals and use school boards to do this. One amendment wanted board control of all instructional material while another would have cut discrimination language.

Districts can propose amendments to state school policies if approved by a district board and are taken to the annual meeting of the Washington State School Directors’ Association where they are discussed and either approved or denied.

In another email to Andrew Perkins, superintendent at Thorp School District in Kittitas County, Foster asked if his board members wanted to join.

“They can text me their names and numbers, and I will speak with the fella who sets up our zoom meetings,” Foster wrote to Perkins on April 29, 2024. “We must be united so we can have a greater influence on the WSSDA and The state.”

Later that day, Foster emailed Hayden, writing that Perkins wanted to “join our zoom meetings.” She referred to Perkins as being, “legit and like minded.”

It’s unclear if Hayden is responsible for setting up the statewide board director meetings.

“We violate the law a lot”

Evans said that state laws and district policies have been broken by school board members.

In one case, Foster recorded a WSSDA board member training meeting on Feb. 22, according to emails from the WSSDA.

Once this came to light, it prompted a stern emailed response from Tim Garchow, who then was the executive director of WSSDA, who cited state and federal wiretapping law. It was also a copyright violation, Garchow wrote, and stated that Foster had shared the recording with “one or more board members.”

Garchow asked her to delete the recording, which apparently included school board directors sharing their experiences.

Evans said violating state laws has been commonplace on the board. She’s pointed out at least one instance of this in emails to Schreiber late last year. A discussion item on the agenda of a July 2, 2024 meeting was listed as “legal counsel,” but the discussion was actually about a legislative bill and local control.

Evans said she spoke with Schreiber before the meeting, and he told her the meeting would be about who the district uses as legal counsel. She wrote to Schreiber on July 2 that the board’s actions were breaking open public meetings law and she would, “not be put in a position moving forward where I am openly complicit in violating OPMA.”

In an interview, Evans said flaunting state laws and district policies has been commonplace.

“We violate the law a lot,” Evans said.

Communications with outside parties in an attempt to violate state law and Office of Public School Instruction authority could be viewed as misconduct by public officers. Public records concerns have also been voiced by community members as an issue.

Rick Flores and Megan Watkins, both Stanwood residents, went to law enforcement with the records issue. The pair filed a perjury complaint against Foster with the Stanwood Police Department in late December 2024.

It wasn’t the first complaint community members have filed. On June 19, Foster referred to one community member as a “POS” in an email to Wendi Monnie, a former teacher who Foster has communicated extensively with about school issues. Foster forwarded the complaint to Monnie, adding “you can tell him how you feel on FB” and “you saw what a dick he is.”

Flores had filed a records request for all of Foster’s emails — including personal emails — dealing with school board issues. Flores told police he received emails written by Foster in a separate public records request with other board members she did not include in her response to Flores. Foster also signed a document saying she had completed the request under the penalty of perjury.

Police suggested meeting with Foster, which interim superintendent Ryan Ovenell contacted Foster about.

“She initially told Ryan, ‘He (referring to police) would need a f−−−ing search warrant and an attorney,’” the police report states.

The responding officer did contact Foster, who told the officer she was not going to speak with police. Stanwood police did not develop probable cause at the time, but the officer requested the case be sent to a detective.

“I do find the history of Betsy appearing to use a personal email for work related matters suspicious,” the officer wrote in the report. “Additionally, I can’t think of any legitimate reason as to why Betsy would forward emails from her work email to her personal email as often as she does.”

Ovenell said in a statement that the district, “advises staff and board members not to use personal email accounts for district-related matters.”

“Unprofessional and attacking”

Board meddling in district administration business became an issue as well.

Rumbaugh’s departure was preceded by a barrage of emails from Foster, often including references to the superintendent’s job performance or demands for information.

Foster asked for a superintendent evaluation form and contact with district lawyers on multiple occasions. Following the March 19 meeting, Foster emailed Rumbaugh that another school board had used that meeting as an example of, “how never to run any type of meeting … as the poorest example of orderly conduct.”

Rumbaugh was upset and wrote to Schreiber that what Foster had said was “unprofessional and attacking in nature.” Later that evening, Foster emailed Rumbaugh again, accusing the superintendent of sabotaging her image.

“Your continued accusations are tiresome,” Foster wrote on April 5. “And could be construed as defamation of character.”

In a July email, Foster emailed Schreiber that they were being “manipulated” by Rumbaugh.

Prior to Rumbaugh’s departure, Foster was pressuring her due to an incident at Utslady Elementary School.

“You don’t interfere with peoples education and that’s what you’ve been doing the last three years stop doing it,” Foster wrote Rumbaugh on Nov. 1, 2024.

Schreiber demanded Rumbaugh put Michael Hanna on leave, which did not comply with established school board policy regarding discipline. Hanna was brought before the school board and answered board questions in front of the community.

Hanna being brought before the board was preceded by emails with Monnie, who spent time in classrooms in the district as a volunteer. She then reported back perceived issues to the board.

The allegations against Hanna came from first-grade teacher Julie Spores. Monnie told the board in an email that she visited the classroom and detailed issues she found there.

The parents of one student in Spores’s classroom wrote to the board that student names were, “being circulated online, via live streams and Facebook comments” and called it an internet “bloodbath.” The report noted Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act violations had been committed by sharing student names.

Spores turned away training other staff members at the school found helpful for classroom management, the report noted.

“Email correspondence shows that the teacher pushed back on many suggestions and in fact failed to implement legally required accommodations,” the report notes.

Monnie is a regular at local Republican meetings, said Satin Arnett, who runs a nonprofit in Stanwood. Stiverson said fact-finding classroom visits are “an intimidation tactic used by the reactionary right” and pointed to similar instances in Florida.

“Nobody’s been complaining”

Foster and other board members appeared to take issue with the district’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work.

Stanwood has experienced racist incidents within the district and community members began to address the issue. One of the main drivers of this work has been Arnett and an organization she helped found — Stanwood-Camano Alliance for Equity. The nonprofit, which is also involved with the district’s equity team, has not been allowed in the school this year.

The district’s equity team has also not met this school year, multiple sources told the Herald.

“We’ve been doing this equity work for years, and nobody’s been complaining,” Arnett said. “Nobody’s been mad at us. Nobody’s been coming for our head.”

SAFE began after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, filing for nonprofit status in 2021. The organization does work in the schools, examples of which include pushing for a language liaison position to help the district’s non-English speaking families.

It helped create student equity groups and write the district equity policy. She was also part of an online district forum to talk about some of the issues facing the district.

“We had students from every age, from elementary school through high school, and they were all students of color, different races and different backgrounds, different histories,” Arnett said. “They spoke about their personal experience in our school district and some of their personal stories.”

Arnett said following the meeting SAFE was “inundated” with requests from teachers and staff asking how they could help.

Foster, meanwhile, sought the names of every member of the district’s equity board. She asked last year for how much money was being spent on “DEI equity classes.”

She wanted to “find out exactly how much money is being spent on anything DEI related, who is employed at the school (if anyone and salaries) And to learn which part of the Budget is paying for all these costs,” Foster wrote Stacey Hoffman, an executive assistant to the superintendent, on Feb. 20.

Foster also took issue with a perceived lack of respect for Constitution Day, which she mistakenly believed was not on the school calendar.

She did see Indigenous People’s Day, however, and that appeared to make her upset.

“Indian Heritage day is NO more important than constitution day,” Foster wrote Stacey Hoffman, an executive assistant to the superintendent.

The upheaval and partisanship adds up to a deep sense of frustration from Arnett and other community members.

But they have dug in and say they will continue their work.

“They can stop it at the district,” Arnett said. “They can cut programs there. They can kill our equity team. But they can’t fire me, and they can’t get rid of SAFE.”

Records used in this report can be found here.

Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; X: @jordyhansen.