Mukilteo School District

In April 2018, in response to the State of Washington allocating $1 billion to school districts in order to comply with the Mccleary ruling, the Mukilteo Education Association sent a formal demand for bargain. The school district refused to bargain with the union, saying that it was a "closed contract." In a statement issued by school board president John Gahagan, he said the board would be willing to "meet and confer." However, in their May 29, 2018, board meeting, MEA president Dana Wiebe said this wasn't enough citing the school district backing out of previous discussions. In response to the school district's refusal to allocate funds, teachers from Mariner High School have been staging informational pickets on the street in front of Mariner during their lunch breaks and continue to do so for the remainder of the school year. They have also asked for the support of community members and students who packed the May 29, 2018 meeting and spoke to the board for nearly an hour. It has been leaked that the teachers of the school district are planning on going on strike and students will miss a month or two of school if they officially go on strike. Sadly for the students, if the strikeout does happen the time will be added to the school year. [8]

During the 1990 strike, Superintendent James Shoemake and the school board conducted actions considered detrimental to the negotiation process with the district teachers' union. Such actions included planning to commence the school year with substitute teachers, spending about $50,000 on advertisements advocating their own position, accusing the state teachers' union of involvement in the strike, and marking blue lines in front of all district schools. While close to 75 percent of teachers initially approved the strike, Shoemake demanded a vote by the teachers on the district's offer, claiming that the union leaders inaccurately represented the teachers; 94 percent of the teachers subsequently rejected the offer. Shoemake, having moved from Joplin, Missouri in 1987, was accused of anti-union practices based on the influence of Missouri's right-to-work law.[6]

In 1996, Gary Toothaker was hired as the district superintendent, having held a similar position at Helena Public School District in Montana before taking the Mukilteo job.[9] In May 2001, Toothaker reached a settlement with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission over accusations of him allowing the distribution of items promoting the district's 2000 bond and levy proposals, agreeing to pay a fine of $7,000.[10] Just more than a year later, Toothaker resigned in October 2002 over allegations of an affair with an unmarried school administrator, with board members concerned about his potential favoritism towards the administrator; Toothaker subsequently filed for divorce the following month.[9] The superintendent position was filled on an interim basis by Fred Poss until Marci Larsen, an administrator who had joined the district in 2000, was appointed on July 1, 2003.[11] Larsen would serve as superintendent until her retirement on December 31, 2019; deputy superintendent Alison Brynelson took over the position the following day.[12]

On the morning of February 13, 2018, a day before the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Catherine Katsel-O'Connor called 9-1-1 to report her discovery of some journal entries of her grandson, Joshua Alexander O'Connor. In the journal, O'Connor wrote down plans to shoot up ACES Alternative High School, where he was attending; he also wrote of his possession of a Hi-Point Carbine rifle in his guitar case, which Katsel-O'Connor found. O'Connor was removed from class and arrested by the Everett Police Department later that day; while in custody, he attempted to escape an officer and kicked him as he caught up to him. In his plans, O'Connor initially targeted Kamiak High School, where he was suspended twice; he later picked ACES after performing a coin flip to decide between Kaimak and ACES as the target. The shooting was to occur on April 20 to coincide with the Columbine High School massacre.

O'Connor was charged with attempted first-degree murder, third-degree assault, and first-degree robbery, the latter of which was that of a convenience store performed by him and another classmate the previous day and which prosecutors assumed he planned to fund his attack with the proceeds from. The assault charge was later dropped in favor of a charge of illegal possession of an explosive device. O'Connor initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, but later changed his mind and pleaded guilty to all charges on December 7; he was subsequently sentenced to 22.5 years in prison on February 28, 2019.[13][14][15][16]

• Mukilteo School District