In Chimacum schools, we teach students to form opinions and make decisions based on facts.
Scott Hogenson’s Aug. 24 letter to the Leader shows he could benefit from learning …
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In Chimacum schools, we teach students to form opinions and make decisions based on facts.
Scott Hogenson’s Aug. 24 letter to the Leader shows he could benefit from learning those skills.
Hogenson claimed “the primary reason” he sold his “Mats Mats Bay home in 2020” was to escape an overspending “failing school” and “moved to Texas” to enroll his child in a thriftier school “that emphasize[s] academics over gimmicks.”
In fact, since 2019 Chimacum High School has academically outperformed more than 70 percent of the public schools in the state, in terms of state test scores and graduation rate (SchoolDigger). And we boast the Olympic Peninsula’s best College in the High School program, enabling our students to earn college credit and an AA degree concurrently with a high school diploma — entirely on our campus — with instructional quality vastly superior to Running Start.
Hogenson falsely claimed Chimacum spends $23,394 per student; the actual figure is $11,117 (SchoolDigger).
Hogenson should know better: In a public forum in 2018, I informed him the state auditor had awarded Chimacum assistant superintendent Art Clarke its Stewardship Award for extraordinary fiscal management. I also invited Hogenson to visit Chimacum to correct his many misconceptions about our great school, excellent teachers, and brilliant students. He never responded.
Instead of educating himself, Hogenson bizarrely abandoned a successful school district and extraordinary community.
Hogenson’s confusion is partly traceable to disparate Leader reporting. Due to COVID-related declining enrollment, both Chimacum and Port Townsend schools must rely on short-term state and federal aid to avoid deficit spending.
Unfortunately, the Leader’s Aug. 11 article on Chimacum’s budget emphasized this as a crisis situation, but the Leader’s Aug. 24 article on Port Townsend’s (very similar) budget accentuated the positive and sounded no similar alarms. It is unclear why the Leader gave such divergent presentations of fundamentally similar budgets.
Brian MacKenzie
President
Chimacum Education Association
