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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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Pekin school board hears from public
PACKWOOD – The Pekin Community School District Board of Directors listened to 16 members of the public who addressed the board during its meeting Monday night, most of whom expressed frustration with the board in light of the recent resignation of Superintendent Derek Philips.
Nearly the first hour of the board’s meeting was dedicated to comments from the public. Each speaker was given three minutes, and the first six speakers reported comments and results from an anonymous survey of 44 Pekin staff members. The survey asked staff members if they were satisfied with the school board, the administration, and the direction the district is heading.
Tracy Diehl was the first speaker of the evening, and she started by reporting the results of the survey showing that 29 of its 44 respondents were “very satisfied” and another 10 were “satisfied” with the 2023-2024 Pekin administration. In contrast, 21 respondents were “very dissatisfied” and another 14 were “dissatisfied” with this year’s school board. Thirty-five respondents said they thought the district has been heading in a negative direction during the past five years.
After Diehl read the result of the survey, subsequent speakers read the anonymous comments left by staff members. Speakers included Jodi Phillips, Denise Hall, Ryan and Erin Pedrick, and others. They relayed comments left by staff that accused the school board members of overstepping their bounds and causing high administrative turnover. One respondent said Pekin’s administrative “carousel” would continue until the board members are voted out. Resident Katie Phillips said that, in the last 15 years, Pekin has had seven superintendents and 10 secondary principals.
Multiple speakers objected to the school board overruling the high school principal’s decision to suspend a student last fall, though the name of the student was not made public. According to the minutes of the school board’s meeting Oct. 4, 2023, after coming out of closed session to discuss the suspension, five of the six board members voted to overturn the suspension, with Heidi Baker, Mike Sieren, Ray Fear, Sherry Bemis and Mike Davis voting in favor, and Kortney Baumberger casting the lone vote against overturing the suspension. Board member JJ Greiner was absent.
Katie Phillips told the board it was improper to overrule suspensions handed down by the administration. Other speakers, such as TLC Instructional Coach Johannah Neff, said she spoke to the board two years ago about how it was not following the proper chain of command, and that it was still a problem two years later. She said the board’s code of conduct tells it to work through administration, “not around them.”
Area farmer Mark Jacobs said Pekin is figuratively on an island, and that there are two kinds of islands: those you’re stranded on and those you can’t wait to get to. He told the board he worried that Pekin’s administration had come to see the district as the first kind of island, and that they were just at the school until they could find another job. He said the board had abused its power, and that the board shouldn’t tell administrators how to do their job.
Katie Keith said the board needed to work on addressing racial discrimination. She said the teachers at Pekin have been “wonderful,” but she had to open enroll her 14-year-old daughter to Fairfield because she didn’t feel welcome there.
Lynnette Winn read a letter from a man named Lester Washington Jr., a black man who graduated from Pekin and who said in his letter that he never felt racism at the school, and that he was embraced by the community.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
