Newly appointed Peninsula School District leaders say they’re ready to tackle big issues
Every seat is filled after two months of searching for a new Peninsula School District board member and an interim superintendent.
Art Jarvis, the interim superintendent, and Lori Glover, the board member representing District 3, were sworn in at the Aug. 9 board meeting. Members voted unanimously to approve Jarvis’s contract for the 2018-19 school year, which starts Aug. 29.
He has been working to learn as much as he can about the school district.
“These first few days I have been trying to learn,” Jarvis said. “I have been listening to teachers and staff about their concerns and I am learning about how terrific of a place this is.”
He has more than 30 years of experience as a superintendent. He started at the South Whidbey School District, where he was superintendent for 11 years. He moved to the Tacoma School District and went from interim to permanent superintendent, working for five years. From there he did stints as a superintendent around the Puget Sound area.
Jarvis hopes this experience is seen as wisdom he can bring to the school district.
“I am certainly approaching this district with an open mind and I hope to gain community support,” he said. “I hope to open the door for staff, leaders and the community to come in and find new ideas and way to garner support for the district.”
Glover has lived in Gig Harbor for 28 years and been a flight attendant for 30. Her two daughters graduated from the Peninsula School District and her son will be a senior at Gig Harbor High School this year.
“This is a great district with fantastic teachers at every level,” Glover said. “It has struggled to gain community support, but I think we can rally the community and unify the district to find that support.”
Glover has volunteered in the school district, as a past member of the local Parent Teacher Organization and a member of the Parent District Council.
Her greatest achievement, she said, was in 2002, when she recruited 1,000 volunteers and raised thousands of dollars for the Kids Gig Project, a playground built in record time at Discovery Elementary School.
“I have a lot of experience working well with all types of people to accomplish goals,” she said. “I want to be someone who brings the board together and can create compromise.”
The past year has been one full of challenges for the school district.
Jarvis and Glover have a lot to work on, with the recent failing of the $220 million bond measure, fallout from the recent McCleary ruling on school funding and negotiations between the district and the Peninsula Education Association on teacher salaries.
Glover said the challenges excite her and are the reason she wanted to join the school board.
“The main thing for me is to be a part of the hiring process for the new permanent superintendent,” she said. “And also finding a way to garner support for a capital measure. I am really excited to give back to the district and I feel as invested as ever as a community member.”
Jarvis said he is going to learn as much as he can to find a solution to some of the long-term issues, such as failing school infrastructure and teacher pay. His time in Tacoma included working with teacher unions during an eight-day teacher strike in 2011 that sent 28,000 children home from school.
“I am a late-comer to the table,” Jarvis said of the current negotiations. “But I hope we can find a compromise that benefits both the district and the union.”
First on Jarvis’s list of jobs to do is where to put the overflow of children at the district’s elementary schools. He said he is working to find new portable classrooms and figuring out where to put them.
“We are working on accommodating the overflow of kids,” he said. “That is my immediate priority.”
After being sworn in himself, Jarvis’ first duty as superintendent was to swear in Glover.
Her appointed term will end in 2019 and she will be eligible for election. Jarvis’s contract ends in June 2019, though it can be extended if a permanent superintendent is not picked by then.
In other news
During the Aug. 9 school board meeting, Deb Brueckner, a teacher at Purdy Elementary School and a member of the Peninsula Education Association, spoke during public comment about the lack of agreed upon teacher salaries.
“I have heard from the board that teachers wouldn’t dream of leaving because they love the district,” she said. “But with South Kitsap and Tacoma just right down the road, it sure is tempting.”
The board voted unanimously to approve an agreement between the school district and the Key Peninsula School Bus Connects program. The program uses buses from the school district to help Key Peninsula residents commute to Purdy to reach Pierce Transit.
This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 11:03 AM.