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Public commenters urge support for arts, libraries and protections for vulnerable students; union raises contract and spending questions
Summary
Community speakers urged the board to prioritize arts education, teacher-librarian services and protections for multilingual and special-education students; the Vancouver Education Association vice president raised questions about $3 million in overload pay and a $3 million Grad Alliance contract.
Several public commenters used the board’s public-comment period to press the district on program priorities and spending oversight.
Natalie Worthy, identifying herself as Miss Vancouver 2026 and an ArtsEdWA ambassador, urged the board to prioritize arts education and to support levies and events that increase access to arts programs for all students.
Teacher-librarians Mary Kathryn McElroy (Sacagawea Elementary) and Shawna Ferguson (Columbia River High School and Thomas Jefferson) described recent professional development, grants and curriculum work that supports digital- and media-literacy instruction. McElroy said a NEA Foundation grant funded novel sets and free training, and that librarians are teaching students to evaluate information and misleading claims. Ferguson described classroom units in which students test how large-language models and image generators work and learn to distinguish authentic student voice from AI-generated text.
Larry Rowe, a community member, urged the board to set measurable superintendent goals and criticized the district’s posted 2022 goals as lacking numeric measures.
Charlotte Latte, vice president of the Vancouver Education Association and a sixth-grade teacher, urged the board to ‘‘chop from the top’’ and protect student-facing services; she asserted the district paid $3,000,000 in overload last year and another $3,000,000 to a vendor called Grad Alliance, and asked the board for detailed accounting of those expenditures and how many students used the contracted services.
Clark County Treasurer Alicia Topper, speaking in support of a registered-warrant resolution (Resolution 939), said she will issue warrants up to $16,500,000 if the board proceeds to avoid a negative cash balance but reiterated that registered warrants are an emergency borrowing tool.
Speakers asked the board to consider measurable goals, protect multilingual learners and students with special needs, and explain contract usage and costs. The board did not immediately answer several detailed questions during public comment; staff said some answers would be provided in FAQ materials or later budget documents.
