Corrections and Clarifications - Naselle school teacher transfer

Karen Wirkkala, principal of Naselle schools, took The Eagle to task over our recent report of a meeting of the board of directors of the Naselle/Grays River Valley School District.

"I was very disappointed and shocked to read the misinformation in the Wahkiakum Eagle regarding the September school board meeting in Naselle," she said. "The comments I am alleged to have made are untrue and I believe I need to clarify what I did say as I believe bits and pieces of conversations were taken out of context, put together, and then conclusions drawn with my name attached."

Wirkkala said the report that she had made staffing changes "in response to the low fourth grade math achievement rate," is false. In fact, she said, when staffing changes had been made, the math scores had not yet been calculated by OSPI. The release of the math scores was not received until August 31 and staffing changes had been made in mid-August. The change of staffing had occurred to include the sixth grade in a middle school model. In order to keep staff in their endorsed areas, it was necessary to move staff between buildings, she said.

She reported this information at the August board meeting, and it was published in The Eagle.

Further, Wirkkala said : The following comment alleged to have been made by me was most disturbing, “The teacher who was teaching fourth grade is now working at the youth camp and the current teacher of the class has been alerted to the situation, said Wirkkala.” I did not at any time make reference to the teacher who had been teaching fourth grade nor alert the current teacher. When questioned about the low achievement scores, I responded to the board by letting them know, “I had met with the elementary building improvement team and asked them to go over the achievement profile for each grade level and determine where the areas of need were.” I had given the achievement profiles to the building leaders and asked them to go over all information and address the areas which would benefit from further instruction. Further, I did talk to the teacher who had been transferred . . . This is not unusual. I meet with all teachers who are new or reassigned to discuss the expectations for a given subject area. Trying to understand how the information I presented was taken out of context and misquoted is very difficult, particularly because I believe the comments were hurtful and in no way reflective of ones I would make.

"Lisa Nelson, principal of the Naselle Youth Camp school, had verified the reasons for the changes in staffing and indicated the change was of great benefit to the Youth Camp School because of the strengths the individual transferred brought to her school," Wirkkala said.

Publisher's response: The Eagle strives for accuracy and fair and balanced reporting. Most of the time, I believe we hit the mark, but in this instance, we missed. We contacted our reporter on scene, who thought he reported Wirkkala's remarks correctly but may have misunderstood them. In any case, incorrect information came to the re-write desk, and in our editing, we missed some warning signs. We apologize for the mistakes and any pain they may have caused, and we are taking steps to avoid repeating them in the future.