EVERETT — A Mill Creek household has poured practically $500,000 into a number of political motion committees as a part of a marketing campaign to unseat a minimum of one member of the Everett Public Colleges Board of Administrators.
The cash is about to be spent throughout all 5 college board seats up for election over the approaching years. Thus far, the household has solely spent cash on one race, sending out mailers for Place 3 aimed toward incumbent Anna Marie Laurence with obscure allegations accusing her of risking pupil security and fostering corruption within the district.
In an interview Tuesday, Laurence denounced the marketing campaign’s claims as “completely false and unfaithful.”
It’s an unprecedented sum of money to be thrown into Everett college board elections. Over the previous 10 years, solely three Everett college board candidates have raised over $10,000 for a race, state disclosure filings present. Many increase no cash in any respect.
The spending comes from newly shaped political motion committees, every named Committee for Instructional Integrity for Everett Public Colleges College Board, shaped by James and Shelly Lee. They’ve accomplished so as a result of they imagine an area robotics firm is utilizing the Jackson Excessive College robotics staff, 2910, as a de-facto promoting machine, having adults construct the staff’s robotic whereas the proprietor of the enterprise advantages from its success.
These claims are at present the topic of an ongoing third-party investigation that the Lee household has declined to take part in. The household raised related complaints with the district over the robotics staff in 2023, however the district accomplished investigations relating to these complaints that discovered no proof of wrongdoing.
The Snohomish County Tribune beforehand reported on the Lees’ spending.
‘The gloves come off’
In 2023, the Lee household filed a tort declare and an official grievance with the district, claiming Jackson Excessive College’s staff coaches exacerbated their baby’s emotional misery, improperly eliminated them from the robotics staff and fostered a staff tradition that prioritized grownup contributions reasonably than pupil studying. The Lees’ baby, Robin, makes use of they/them pronouns.
The Lee household declined to take part within the district’s investigations. On the time, James Lee supplied to pay for a non-public investigator to undertake an investigation, however the district declined. There’s no precedent for a household footing the invoice for a third-party investigation on behalf of the district, which might create an look of bias, district spokesperson Concord Weinberg wrote in an e-mail.
After reviewing paperwork and interviewing coaches, district employees, a mum or dad and college students, inside district investigations discovered no proof to assist the household’s claims, two studies stated. The Herald obtained the studies via a public data request.
In an investigation report carried out by the district’s head of human sources, the staff’s former head coach stated Robin Lee tried out for the function of driver in 2023 and didn’t get the place. Not getting that function impacted them, in response to the report.
“The coed’s presence and participation dramatically shifted from September to October,” a abstract from an interview with the previous coach learn. “Previous to that, the household was very excited concerning the pupil taking part in robotics, which all modified with the driving force choice announcement.”
The coach then met with Shelly and Robin Lee, who reportedly expressed disappointment in not receiving the driving force function and stated they didn’t need another place on the staff, the district response to the tort declare learn.
Within the following weeks, the coach started listening to studies from college students who stated Robin Lee “had been complaining that the mentors don’t care concerning the college students and don’t acknowledge their efforts,” the district response learn. The top coach additionally obtained two nameless studies relating to Lee’s psychological well being and angle towards the staff, the tort response learn.
After listening to these studies, three coaches reportedly met with Robin Lee and stated their statements have been “not suitable with a PR Officer place,” the function Lee held on the time. In response to the tort response, Lee was not considering persevering with with the PR Officer function and wished extra drive time with the robotic. The top coach, in response to the tort response, expressed concern over Lee holding the PR Officer function once they didn’t need it.
Lee stated the top coach acknowledged he would change them and stated they have been “disposable,” which the top coach denied, in response to the report. The top coach then spoke with different coaches and college directors. The district’s inside investigation discovered that the coaches and directors made the choice to take away Lee from the staff after they discovered Lee had made feedback and brought actions that have been “detrimental to the staff.”
The investigation additionally cited the Jackson Excessive College robotics contract, which reads that “staff coaches reserve the proper to take away me from the staff at their discretion for any conduct working opposite to FIRST, district, college, and/or staff necessities and expectations.”
FIRST refers to FIRST Robotics, the group that oversees and operates the worldwide robotics competitions.
After the coaches eliminated Lee from the staff, James Lee responded with an e-mail asking the coaches to convey them again onto the staff. In that e-mail, included within the district’s tort response, he stated the top coach on the time and different mentors have been violating the ethics and guidelines of the robotics competitors.
“I want to see full reinstatement by Tuesday 2pm,” he wrote within the 2023 e-mail. “At 2:01 the gloves come off.”
The district’s last report discovered no proof to assist the allegation that coaches fostered a staff tradition that prioritized grownup mentors.
The quantity of grownup involvement that needs to be allowed in robotics competitions is a real level of competition for some who take part. A nonprofit Robin Lee based to advocate for much less grownup involvement in robotics named StudentsFIRST has gained assist from various groups throughout the nation, in response to its web site.
However FIRST Robotics nonetheless permits contributions from mentors when each constructing and training. Its web site says grownup mentorship is a part of the explanation its packages are profitable as college students can study by working hand-in-hand with skilled adults. The extent of grownup participation additionally varies 12 months to 12 months, in response to the district’s response to the tort declare.
“FIRST Robotics Competitors just isn’t a program the place youth construct a robotic solely on their very own to compete towards one other robotic constructed solely by youth,” the group’s senior director wrote in 2024. “It’s a program the place youth work each with one another and with grownup mentors who assist them study new abilities and develop as people.”
In an announcement, Weinberg stated college students lead the design, construct and competitors work on the robotics staff. Employees and college students interviewed within the district’s 2024 report additionally stated that the Jackson robotics staff follows FIRST Robotics tips on the subject of mentor involvement.
“Mentors present steering and guarantee security, which is commonplace follow in highschool robotics packages throughout the nation,” Weinberg wrote. “This data has been corroborated by mentors and nationwide FIRST robotics employees.”
When requested concerning the district’s findings in 2024, James Lee stated the very fact the district turned down his provide to pay for an investigation meant the district was making an attempt to regulate its outcomes.
“No one turns down a free investigation that might save the taxpayers cash in the event that they genuinely believed an unbiased investigator would discover nothing,” he wrote in an e-mail Monday. “The board is nicely conscious our allegations are true and reasonably than danger the reality popping out, is hoping to regulate the investigation. That’s the solely logical cause to show down a free investigation.”
Weinberg reiterated that the 2024 investigation, which she referred to as “formal” and “policy-driven,” concluded there was no proof of discrimination, retaliation, violations of protected speech or defamation towards the scholar. She additionally stated the investigation discovered the household was upset after the scholar wasn’t chosen for the driving force function, and their subsequent actions and feedback undermined the robotics staff.
“The household refused to take part within the investigation, so the knowledge yielded by college students, coaches, volunteers, and nationwide FIRST robotics employees should be taken at face worth,” Weinberg wrote.
That scenario can also be not the primary time the Lees have alleged authorities wrongdoing. In 2015, James Lee, who had labored as a monetary analyst for Snohomish County, alleged he was compelled to spice up automobile stipends for elected officers on the county. A 3rd-party investigator employed by the county later discovered there was no improper authorities motion.
‘A private vendetta’
Laurence is a former prosecutor who serves on the board of a Seattle nonprofit. She’s additionally the daughter of former Sen. Henry M. Jackson, the namesake of Jackson Excessive College who represented Washington in Congress for over 40 years.
In Could, the varsity board appointed her to the seat after Caroline Mason, who had served on the board for greater than a decade, resigned in March. Laurence is up for reelection this November.
The mailer marketing campaign has been denounced by incumbent college board members and different candidates for the board seats as nicely.
Laurence has solely been on the board for lower than 4 months — she was appointed years after the Lees’ preliminary complaints — and has by no means communicated with the household, she stated.
“I’m a volunteer right here, simply making an attempt to do good work to assist college students in our neighborhood,” Laurence stated. “Sadly, there are people who over-politicize a scenario over a private vendetta.”
A web site paid for by the Lee household, often called Laurence Let Us Down, reveals a picture of a dilapidated playground subsequent to a photograph of Laurence. It says Laurence did not act “when studies surfaced about college volunteers making a dangerous setting for college students.”
“When pupil security was in danger, Anna Marie Laurence did nothing,” it reads.
Roman Rewolinski, one other member of the varsity board, stated his first reactions to the marketing campaign have been confusion and shock.
“It doesn’t actually say something particular,” Rewolinski stated. “It’s simply the picture of the run-down, nearly fallout model of a playground, all blasted-out bizarre photographs. And the claims are simply very obscure, they’re complicated.”
On the backside of the flyers and the web site, a message encourages voters to assist Tom Clarke, Laurence’s opponent within the election.
Clarke had no involvement with the creation of the marketing campaign and was not knowledgeable of its content material earlier than it was launched. He’s publicly distanced himself from it, calling the flyers “deceptive,” “vitriolic,” “soiled,” and “extreme for a faculty board marketing campaign,” he stated in an interview Tuesday.
“I felt like they have been appropriating my identify by utilizing my identify on this,” Clarke stated. “Regardless that it says who it’s paid for and it has the right disclaimers, by placing my identify on there, I felt like they have been hijacking the message of my marketing campaign and turning it into this unfavorable factor. So I used to be actually pissed off.”
Clarke first met with the Lee household in July, he stated. That they had reached out to him via a consultant at their firm, Totally Loaded Electronics, that sells specialised online game consoles utilized in locations like ready rooms, hospitals, lodges and correctional amenities.
At a gathering, the Lees raised their issues with the robotics staff and supplied to assist Clarke’s marketing campaign, he stated. Clarke stated he empathized with their scenario.
“If their allegations are true, and their baby was punished for doing the proper factor, I believe that’s very unhappy and the district does have to look into it,” he stated.
After speaking with the household backwards and forwards for a few month, Clarke stated he contacted the Lees by way of e-mail asking them to cease providing assist because of moral issues. As a result of the household had informed him a lot about their scenario, he felt he didn’t need an implication for the Lees to count on preferential therapy from him if he was elected. He additionally stated, if elected, he would recuse himself from issues involving the Lees.
Clarke by no means heard again after sending that e-mail, he stated. A number of weeks later, the mailers began displaying up.
James Lee stated he determined to assist Clarke as a result of he met with the household to listen to their issues.
“We expect the largest step in higher authorities is electing officers that care sufficient to wish to study extra,” Lee wrote Monday. “Ms. Laurence by no means responded to many requests to satisfy and listen to concerning the corruption we had witnessed.”
Though Clarke stated he disagrees with the messaging within the marketing campaign supplies, he maintained the political motion committee’s speech was protected beneath the First Modification. He additionally stated people who find themselves nervous concerning the mailers ought to deal with extra vital challenges dealing with the district.
“There’s actual points on the market that individuals don’t take this a lot umbrage with,” he stated. “I want these individuals would cease being so filled with (expletive) and really begin taking note of the problems that matter on this college district and on this metropolis and on this county, as a substitute of clutching their pearls.”
Clarke additionally despatched a stop and desist letter to the Lee household, asking them to cease utilizing his identify on the flyers.
“I don’t wish to be part of this tit for tat between two millionaires and one other millionaire after I’m working to characterize the working class households in our college district,” Clarke stated.
‘It’s proper right here in Everett’
The Lee household nonetheless maintains that adults construct the robots, the staff silences critics and that the general public funds going towards this system profit one mentor’s non-public firm. In a letter to a third-party investigator shared with The Herald, Robin Lee stated the coaches eradicating them from the staff left them “devastated.”
This 12 months, the household requested to satisfy with the members of the varsity board to debate their issues. In emails to district officers, they’ve urged the banning of a number of mentors and the general public rejection of the robotics staff’s 2025 world championship title, the primary it has ever gained.
District coverage states complaints relating to employees members have to undergo higher-ranking employees for investigation, not board members. That’s as a result of the varsity board governs via coverage, Weinberg wrote in an e-mail.
“It’s the accountability of employees to manage associated procedures, together with conducting investigations when wanted,” she wrote.
Individuals are allowed, nevertheless, to make remarks to the board by way of public remark at common conferences to tell board members of points within the district. Rewolinski and one other board member, Jen Hirman, each stated the Lee household has by no means made public remark.
“We encourage the general public remark as a result of which means we’re all listening to the identical data on the similar time,” Hirman stated in an interview Wednesday. “… That’s one of the simplest ways for all of us to listen to data directly, so you may’t have misinterpreted data.”
The Lee’s complaints have been redirected to district employees. Employees supplied to satisfy with the household, emails shared with The Herald present, however the household declined. James Lee stated it was as a result of employees is employed by the varsity board and “their job relies on agreeing with the board.”
“The executive employees’s job is to faux to have an interest within the reality after which later write up a report that confirms what the board desires to listen to,” Lee wrote.
The Lee household stated they shaped the political motion committees as a strategy to unfold consciousness of what they see as a corrupt system set as much as profit one man’s enterprise.
“The board permits adults to make use of tax payer cash to construct the robotic on the Jackson Excessive College robotics staff. What’s subsequent? That is no totally different than grownup coaches placing on soccer pads and pretending to be a highschool linebacker,” James Lee wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “It’s widespread sense that this isn’t how voters need their tax cash spent. Our purpose is for voters to know that the board is conscious of this follow and isn’t doing something to cease it.”
The district allocates about $63,000 yearly towards every of its excessive colleges for robotics packages, Weinberg stated.
After complaints have been redirected to district employees, the district opened a brand new third-party investigation into the household’s allegations in August.
When utilizing a third-party investigator, the district makes a request to take action via the Washington Colleges Danger Administration Pool, a type of monetary safety much like insurance coverage for losses like authorized prices and property injury. The administration pool contacts an legal professional, who then selects an unbiased investigator. The price of the investigation is roofed by the district’s protection settlement with the administration pool, Weinberg wrote.
The district can not touch upon open investigations, Weinberg wrote. Board members additionally can not touch upon the investigation and are barred from assembly with the Lee household whereas it’s ongoing, board president Traci Mitchell wrote in an e-mail shared with The Herald.
The household declined to take part within the present investigation, as doing so would “give it a veneer of legitimacy which it doesn’t deserve,” Shelly Lee wrote in an e-mail shared with The Day by day Herald. In a letter to the investigator, Lee wrote that the third-party investigator could be “financially incentivized to provide college districts the end result they need so they’ll convey extra enterprise to the doorstep.”
It’s unclear when the investigation will probably be full.
The Lee household has contributed $489,000 to its 5 political motion committees as of Thursday, state disclosure filings present. The Place 3 committee, specializing in the seat held by Laurence, has $145,000 within the financial institution.
For the reason that mailer marketing campaign began, college board members raised issues over the potential impacts the cash the Lees plan to inject in upcoming elections. Proper now, just one board member has been focused, however others are making ready for related campaigns.
Some board members lamented using such an unlimited sum of money on a faculty board election.
“I take a look at that sum of cash and I believe, boy, they might accomplish that a lot good on the planet, and so they decide this,” Rewolinski stated. “It doesn’t compute for me.”
Present board members additionally stated the spending served as a distraction from specializing in points affecting college students throughout the district.
Laurence, who has borne the brunt of the assaults up to now, sees spending like this as a menace to native democracy.
“It’s unlucky that that is occurring in America right now, the place you see such an abuse of cash and politics,” Laurence stated. “Now it’s not simply on the market in America someplace, it’s proper right here in Everett, it’s proper right here in our neighborhood. And it’s occurring on the degree of a faculty board.”
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; [email protected]; X: @willgeschke.
