KENT, Wash — The Kent School District's (KSD) board president submitted his resignation from his position during a special meeting held Friday night, March 24.
Tim Clark's resignation follows what some KSD parents and staff called "concerning comments" made at a March 20 joint meeting with the City of Covington.
The comments were made while discussing school district boundaries and the impact on a specific minority group in which Clark used the term, "colony," to refer to a group of refugees from Somalia.
Clark resigned from his position as board president. According to the resolution, he has resigned from that position but not from the school board as a member.
Clark gave a lengthy statement about the "concerning comments" on Wednesday evening during the March 22 school board meeting, two days before submitting his resignation from his position.
"I'm sorry for any of that I have offended but I just want you to know it's because I've actually been working with that group and I didn't use the right terminology," Clark said.
On Friday, the school board presented a group statement on the matter and Clark submitted his resignation from the position of board president. Each resolution was passed unanimously.
The board's group statement was read by Clark as follows, "The Board of Directors is aware of certain and sensitive comments made by its board president concerning a minority group in Kent. President Clark has submitted his resignation as board president and the board will take further collective action on this matter on Wednesday, March 29, 2023."
Mill Creek Middle School teacherShannon Jephson-Hernandez wrote a letter to the Kent School District after hearing insensitive comments made by Clark. Jephson-Hernandez wants him removed from the school board entirely.
“When he has voting power of the lives and futures of children and the direction of their education that’s scary to me and that’s why I feel he needs to be removed entirely,” Jephson-Hernandez said.
Jephson-Hernandez was told about the comment as soon as it happened, but it took a public records request to hear it for herself.
“My heart would break if families heard that," Jephson-Hernandez said. "We have beautiful families in this district who have a lot of faith and trust in educators and in the system."
Jephson-Hernandez said Clark has made multiple concerning comments over the past year and cited one instance during a meeting about School Resource Officers in her letter to the district.
“He’s had a lot of opportunities to learn about the needs of this community. Some people try to apologize and it turns more into a justification for their behavior and that’s how I felt about his apology,” Jephson-Hernandez said.
“Anybody who has voting power over an operating system and the lives of people should not be in that position of power if they can’t be objective and they can’t think in an equitable way,” Jephson-Hernandez said.
A few online comments from KSD community members were read out loud at the special meeting on March 24 and one parent spoke in person.
"Last week I was very concerned about some comments that were made by a member of this board that were misguided and inappropriate, if not outright racist. To make matters worse, an apology was issued at the board meeting on Wednesday night that was severely out of touch, and was really not an apology at all, but the speaker's attempt at justification for their earlier comments," said Michelle McCormick, KSD parent. "You are the face of one of the most diverse districts in the country, yet seem to lack any idea of a cultural sensitivity means."
McCormick is referring to a recent WalletHub report on "2023's Most and Least Ethnically Diverse Cities in the U.S.," which ranked Kent, Wash., as the sixth most ethnically diverse city in the nation just behind New York City.
Before the March 24 meeting concluded Friday evening, KSD Board Member Meghin Margel said, "I just want to say that all of us through this have realized words matter, and I please ask the community's respectful time to make sure we have a thoughtful collective all of us and just know that, this was echoed also, by Joe Bento. Just give us a little time."
KSD Board Member Awale Farah also spoke on the matter before the special meeting was adjourned, "I just want to say that when we sit here sometimes and don’t say anything, it doesn’t mean that we are condoning what is being said. We have a procedure and how to do things because we are the governing body so we have to be thoughtful when we say and how we say so. Maybe the community does not see us being angry, or having distaste of what is being said, but at the same time, it does not mean we are not feeling that. I just want to say that."
During the March 22 meeting, a KSD teacher also spoke on the matter. "I will never ever want to hear anybody else from this dais refer to a group of people as a 'colony of anything,'" said Tomara Lucrisia, KSD paraeducator.