Community should fight to keep outstanding public servant
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Editor,
The image of my friend Shawn Hendrickson exiting the Feb. 14 Polson School board meeting will haunt me for a long time. If the incredible turnout and show of support for the Polson vice principal is any indication, the community at large is haunted by all this as well.
But what exactly did go on there? We know that superintendent David Whitesell and principal Rob Hankins recommended Hendrickson, by all accounts and review an exceptional employee of the Polson School system, be fired without cause. We don't know much about their motivations because they haven't defended their decision in any appreciable manner appropriate of their positions. This may be their legal right, but it's no mark of a leader genuinely interested in the well-being of their community.
For their part, the school board is sworn to represent the citizens who elected them. They also upheld the decision against an incredible up-swell of support for Hendrickson, and with no compelling reasons of their own. I don’t know the real motivations of the board or the administrators involved, but I’d sure like to.
I worked alongside Shawn coaching at Lummi High School and saw firsthand the impact he made on the lives and futures of those kids. Here is a man, who at every decision point in his life, put in the hard work and made the sacrifices necessary to get back and serve his community with resolve and vision. His professional goal has always been to live out his career making a real difference in the Polson school system. I'm a proud product of that system myself, and I've been around long enough to know that small communities don't get many chances at leaders like Shawn, and when they do, they better fight for them with everything they've got.
I encourage anyone in the Polson community who cares about the future of the school system to fight for Shawn as well. Fight with your voice. Fight with your pen. Fight with your vote. This is a defining moment for my hometown, and if I know anything about the community, you will rise up and succeed in keeping this outstanding public servant employed where he belongs.
Jacob Hartsoch
Bellingham, Wash.
PHS class of 1992
