Riverside School Strife At High Pitch School Board Selection Sparks Teacher Meeting To Consider Strike

Discontent among teachers in the Riverside School District reached a new level Thursday night when a vacancy on the school board was filled - by a man they fear will support Riverside’s embattled superintendent.

Riverside teachers will meet today to consider a strike vote. If they vote to strike, they will have to decide whether to do so before the school year ends June 13 or wait until school resumes in the fall.

Several teachers said Thursday they plan to look for jobs outside the district.

Rande Kummer, a Chattaroy area cattle and hay farmer, was selected from among six candidates by the Educational Service District 101 board of directors to fill the Riverside vacancy.

Because Kummer and Riverside Superintendent Jerry Wilson are friends, teachers fear the current 2-2 split on the board is weighted in Wilson’s favor now.

Teachers have demanded that Wilson resign, accusing him of providing poor leadership, disrespecting teachers and placing students last as a priority.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” said one teacher who bolted for the door after the ESD board voted 5-2 for Kummer during the public meeting in Spokane. Others left in tears.

ESD board members spent more than three hours publicly interviewing the six candidates. After the vote, several teachers - who made up much of the roughly 40-member audience - gasped.

“I feel like my throat is closing in,” said an elementary teacher, who declined to give her name. “This is absolutely a bad dream.”

Kummer said teachers need not worry.

“I’m fair and honest and I want to do what’s right for the students,” Kummer said. “(Wilson) is my friend, but friendship is one thing and business is another.

“Just because I sold him property 30 years ago and he lives across from us, that doesn’t mean anything.”

Kummer said he isn’t going to judge the district’s crisis before gathering information.

“I’m not taking sides with anybody,” said Kummer, 55, who served on the school board in the mid-‘70s. “My first concern is to have harmony on the school board and then we can get on with all the other problems. There are so many personalities involved and we forgot about the students, I think.”

Wilson could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

Many teachers say ousting Wilson is the first step to solving the district’s longstanding strife. A total of 99 of the district’s 124 teachers signed a petition last month calling for him to resign.

The Riverside School District, which includes four schools, serves about 2,500 students.

Riverside teachers plan to meet at 3:30 p.m. today at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Colbert to consider a strike vote, said Riverside High School English teacher Marvin Sather.

“If there is a unanimity of feelings that this is the right thing to do, I would vote `yes,”’ said Sather, who is Washington state’s Teacher of the Year.

Sather said he can’t predict how teachers will vote, but their frustrations have been building for years.

“You are dealing with a group of folks that for many years have been beaten down,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what will happen. Potentially, this could be explosive, but that was in the works anyhow.”

Sather threatened last month to resign if Wilson didn’t and had been holding out for the new school board appointment before making a final decision. He said he wants to give Kummer a chance, though.

“I’ve had it in my own mind to wait until the next board meeting,” Sather said. “But I’m personally leaning toward leaving.”

Several other teachers said they will start job-hunting.

“I’m out of there, I’m leaving, I’ve had enough of this administration,” said another elementary teacher, who also wouldn’t give her name. “The good ol’ boys network is alive and well.”

She gathered with a group of teachers who pondered their futures.

“I’ve completely lost faith in a profession I’ve cherished and valued,” said a Riverside Middle School teacher. He, too, wouldn’t give his name, saying he feared retribution from Wilson in the event he can’t find a new job.

Many teachers said they were shocked by the ESD board’s choice, considering two of the other candidates had master’s degrees in business administration.

“It was like an O.J. Simpson verdict - oh my God,” said Liz Hively, a physical education teacher at Chattaroy Elementary School.

But ESD board Chairman Ron Schmidt said Kummer was the best candidate.

“He just did a super job about answering the questions,” Schmidt said. “He had lots of strengths.”

The five other candidates were Jeni Forman, Lisa Kaley, Abe Bowen, Ted Swenson and Sue Stierwalt.