Mixed feelings on 1st-year principal

There was no Senior Run at Everett High School this year.

Instead of the exuberant dash by almost-graduates through every hall of every building on the last day of classes — a tradition for as long as anyone can remember — there was only an e-mail to teachers telling them not to let seniors out early on their final day.

The school district said the run disrupted learning and risked student safety. But for many students and their parents, the incident was emblematic of the school year under new Principal Catherine Matthews, who, they say, brought a heavy-handed authority to Everett's flagship high school rather than building on traditions and forging partnerships with students.

But Matthews' supporters, including Everett School District administrators, say she has strengthened communication with the school's minority families and brought much-needed discipline to the school.

"We think she's doing a stellar job," said Jim McNally, who oversees north-end schools for the district.

Everett High was in the news frequently in the past school year, from a student fight with police in March that resulted in four criminal charges and 13 expulsions or suspensions, mostly involving Latinos, to censorship of the 100-year-old student newspaper, the Kodak.

For many seniors at the school, the year didn't live up to their expectations of a spirited, triumphal last act.

"It was going to be such a sweet year," said Kodak co-editor Sara Eccleston. "We were going to be leaving a legacy, doing something worthwhile and having fun."

Instead, she said, students faced a stricter attendance policy and had to wear bright-yellow hall passes around their necks. Alcohol breath tests became standard features at school dances, and the newspaper editors said that for the first time, they were required to submit galleys of the Kodak to the principal for pre-publication review.

The student editors refused and are suing the school district in federal court. The district said a 1998 policy permitted, but did not require, administrators to review student publications. To Eccleston and her co-editor, Claire Lueneburg, the incident was another in which Matthews sought to assert control rather than trusting teens' judgment.

Matthews, through a district spokeswoman, declined an interview, saying she was too busy. But the spokeswoman pointed to Matthews' championing of diversity and inclusion at the school and a recent Challenge Day program in which 200 students, administrators and teachers worked on building respect and acceptance.

Van Dinh-Kuno, the director of Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest, based in Everett, said Matthews has shown concern for non-English-speaking families.

"In the past, principals didn't put a lot of effort into reaching our families," Dinh-Kuno said. "She takes the need to communicate seriously."

Many parents and teachers also welcomed Matthews' tighter attendance policies and crackdown on students skipping classes. They say that in previous years, students walked in late, left the campus without permission and skipped school without parents being notified.

Ross Rettenmier, the president of the Blue and Gold Club at Everett High, a community group that raises money for the school, said Matthews has brought needed accountability to the high school.

"Doesn't it make sense that the people in charge know where students are during the day?" he asked. "Isn't that a great thing?"

Rettenmier said that he and his wife, Judy, who coordinates the high-school health center, have been "very impressed" with Matthews' energy and understanding of the school's needs.

But a number of students said Matthews seemed more interested in rules and policies than in their participation or views.

Kendra Vandree, the student-body president, said she began the year hoping to build bridges between students of different ethnic and social groups. She had imagined spirited assemblies and a school atmosphere where "students would enjoy their day and not feel separate or alone."

Instead, she said, the administration took over student-planned assemblies, canceled other assemblies and asserted control over small things, such as the morning announcements, which had long been in student hands.

"It wasn't a nurturing atmosphere," she said. "It wasn't 'Let's get together to make the school better.' "

Gradually over the year, Vandree said, "I completely lost faith and spirit."

Vandree's mother, Linda, who had coordinated parent volunteers at the school for seven years, resigned in February after growing disillusioned with Matthews' leadership. In the past, she said, parents had contributed about 10,000 volunteer hours a year.

But Linda Vandree said the new principal saw volunteers as a "labor pool" rather than "a source of talent and support for the students and the school." When asked about her personal impression of Matthews, the longtime volunteer said, "She didn't talk to me."

Another parent, Linda Nelson, said her son had transferred to Everett High as a sophomore because of the school's warmth and diversity. That warmth, she said, was replaced this past year by "a real Gestapo feel."

The new principal, she said, "treated the students as if they were criminals, as if they were bad people, instead of holding them up as future leaders, as young people who should be encouraged and built up."

Justin Boyce, the captain of the football and wrestling teams, said many students stayed away from school dances because of new rules.

He said students were given breath tests at the door even if there was no indication they'd been drinking. Administrators refused to turn down the lights and enforced rules to limit what they saw as sexually explicit dance moves. Boyce said the issue was boys dancing closely behind girls rather than facing them.

"It didn't make dances that fun," he said. "A lot of kids just stopped going."

Josue Vega lost more this past year than the freedom to enjoy a school dance. He dropped out of Everett High a few months short of graduation, discouraged by the treatment of Latino students after the March fight. In the immediate aftermath of what police later called a "near riot," Vega said an assistant principal thanked him for trying to break it up. But Vega was suspended for failing to disperse when police arrived.

He was supposed to have been the co-captain of the Everett High boys soccer team this spring, but was told he had to appeal to the district to be reinstated.

He said he thought students had blamed "the Mexicans" for the fight rather than questioning school administrators' decision to call police to settle what began as a fight between two girls.

"The point of education is to go on and build a life," he said. "They're not creating an atmosphere here [at Everett High School] that makes students want to go to school."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com