The author gets nearly everything wrong about the Chimacum School District.

Mr. Hogenson falsely accused the current superintendent of “neglecting 20 years of declining enrollment.”

In fact, Mr. Thompson first joined the district just 3 years ago.

Over the past two decades, CSD has worked to address enrollment challenges in three ways:

First, by diversifying CSD’s offerings to compete for students (e.g., developing the Pi and Futures alternative learning programs, adding Advanced Placement courses, expanding College in the High School partnerships with local colleges & universities).

Second, through responsible budgeting. Earlier this year, the state auditor recognized CSD assistant superintendent Art Clarke with the Stewardship Award for 20+ years of effective fiscal management. (PDN 5/11/18)

Third, in the last 3 years, the current board and superintendent have hired all new principals, and have set rigorous performance goals to guide us in our school improvement efforts. (See the CSD board page on the district website.)

Falsely implying that Chimcum High School has poor test scores, Mr. Hogenson asserted that “parents… pulled their kids out of Chimacum schools because 75% of 11th graders failed the state’s Smarter Balance Assessment tests in math during the 2016-17 school year.” Mr. Hogenson neglected to mention that 74% of juniors statewide failed the state math test that year. (Common Core has raised the bar substantially.) In recent years, CHS performance on state tests has hovered around the state average–sometimes just above, sometimes just below. No one is satisfied with that. Chimacum kids need and deserve excellent performance, and everyone at CSD is working hard toward that goal. But Mr. Hogenson is clearly wrong to describe CHS as a “failed school.”

Mr. Hogenson wonders “how many Chimacum High students were allowed to cut math class on March 14 so they could be exploited by the movement to relieve people of their constitutional rights.” The numerical answer is that one-sixth of the student body had a math class scheduled that period, and about half of all students participated in the peaceful and orderly demonstration, so about one-twelfth of CHS students missed less than a half hour of math that day–about 0.3% of the year’s allotted instructional time in the subject.

But none of those students were “exploited.” If Mr. Hogenson saw the next day’s print edition of the PDN, he would have seen a photo of the demonstration, showing a CHS student counterdemonstrator displaying an NRA sign. He might also be interested to learn that in April other CHS students sought and obtained permission to organize an on-campus demonstration in support of gun rights. That second demonstration passed without press coverage, I think because those students did not contact local papers as the organizers of the first demonstration had done.

It is condescending to describe CHS students on either side of the issue as “exploited.” CHS students are thoughtful and rational. Our civics curriculum requires students to consider views across the political spectrum and to weigh evidence in support of competing assertions and positions–in short, to do the work Mr. Hogenson should have done before writing the CSD section of this opinion piece.

CSD will continue to work hard to compete for a shrinking pool of potential students in an aging county with inadequate housing and employment prospects for parents of school-age children. In other contexts, Mr. Hogenson has expressed interest in addressing the county’s economic challenges. I appreciate his efforts on that front, because those challenges are the primary drivers of CSD’s long-term enrollment decline.

I invite Mr. Hogenson to call me at 360.302.5905. I would enjoy an opportunity to show him around CHS, introduce him to our students, share our successes, and demonstrate that CSD constitutes an example of good government in Jefferson County.