Plans are moving ahead to change Sequim elementary schools from two kindergarten-through-fifth-grade schools to a grades K-2 and 3-5 model, despite the protests and petitions of some parents and staff.

In a 4-1 vote on April 10, Sequim School Board directors agreed on April 10 to superintendent Regan Nickels’ proposal to reconfigure the schools, placing the district’s youngest students in classrooms at Greywolf Elementary in Carlsborg and its older elementary students at Helen Haller Elementary, located near the district’s middle school, high school and district offices.

The plan would take effect for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.

Eric Pickens, the board president and lone dissenting vote, said on April 21 that he and fellow board director Michael Rocha met with 44 staffers from both schools last week to discuss some of the issues surrounding the reconfiguration plan.

“It’s uncharted territory,” Pickens said. “I appreciate there’s a lot of apprehension. Folks don’t always agree.

“I do know everybody involved has the best of intentions at heart.”

Parents and students were joined by staff members at protests on Monday, April 17, and Friday, April 21, holding signs that read “Hear Teachers,” “We thrive with k-5,” “Keep K-5,” “We Call for a Re-vote,” “#SequimStrong,” “Why the Force?” and other messages.

Parents Wynn and Jared Hannam live within walking distance of Helen Haller Elementary, and said their children Nora and Ellie want to be together at the same school.

“They shouldn’t have to ride the bus an hour when they live within walking distance,” Jared Hannam said at the April 17 protest at the North Sequim Avenue and Fir Street intersection.

Marie-Claire Bernards, a teaching specialist at Helen Haller Elementary, joined the protests last week.

“As a social-emotional learning teacher I see that kids are just now getting traction after the pandemic,” Bernards said. “This [change] will just compound it.”

Victor Orlando and Adrienne Kaestner on April 17 protest the reconfiguration of Sequim’s two elementary schools.

“We want Superintendent Regan Nickels to rescind [the] decision,” protester Adrienne Kaestner said. “[The district] clearly doesn’t have the support of the community and the parents — nor their trust.”

Protester Victor Orlando noted, “The only good that has come of this is we’ve made a lot of friends that we wouldn’t have otherwise. If they don’t have our best interest at heart, they should resign.”

Following the board’s vote, Nickels said the district would begin forming advisory groups, composed primarily of staff and some parents, Nickels said, as school leaders examine details of how to restructure each building for grade level needs.

Pickens said last week that, now that the decision’s been made, the best way forward is to focus on those advisory groups so that “the transition happens as smoothly as possible.”

Said Pickens, “They [staff] are dealing with a lot this year. We want to make sure we take care of students and staff.

“We want to make sure this reconfiguration does what it says it’s going to do.”

In her April 10 presentation and in public budget meetings in March, Nickels outlined several reasons behind the reconfiguration: allowing better staff collaboration at grade levels; better use of grade-specific resources; creating balanced class sizes; better transitions for fifth-graders heading into middle school grades.

“This [current] configuration isn’t maximizing the potential we can have,” she said.

Pickens said last week that while he voted against the reconfiguration — he perceived a lack of support among the teaching staff — he does believe the change will address some inequalities between the schools.

“Removing those barriers is something to consider,” he said.

An elementary school reconfiguration plan was proposed in 2021 by then superintendent Jane Pryne but was subsequently dropped. However, in recent weeks, as Sequim administrators looked to cut an estimated $3.6 million from the district’s approximate $46 million annual budget, the reconfiguration plan was brought back up as a measure to help defer some of those cuts.

Some staffers insisted the cuts at the elementary schools — primarily to teaching positions — could be made without a reconfiguration and that the proposal should be judged on the merits of its benefits to student learning; on Monday, Nickels said that’s a fair assessment, but that she still thought the reconfiguration is a positive move for student learning.

Nearly a dozen community members took the opportunity Monday to speak about — and primarily against — the reconfiguration plan on April 10. Community members also formed an online group, Sequim Community Against Realignment (facebook.com/groups/242359741596647).

The outcry also drew interest from Seattle’s King 5 News, whose reporters interviewed Nickels and Pickens late last week.

“The concerns are absolutely legitimate,” Nickels told King 5 on April 21.

“New demands from students require new ways of learning, and new ways of teaching. Our teachers have talked about the supports they need and we hope this will help deliver it.”

Said Pickens, “We still want the feedback. It’s critical. It’s our teachers; they’re the ones on the ground.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Victor Orlando and Adrienne Kaestner on April 17 protest the reconfiguration of Sequim’s two elementary schools.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Marie-Claire Bernards, Brian Webb and second-grader Weston Webb join dozens of protestors at the intersection of North Sequim avenue and Fir Street on April 17, as citizens protest the Sequim School Board’s decision to reconfigure the district’s two elementary schools.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen More than 100 adults and children on April 17 protest the Sequim School Board’s decision to reconfigure the district’s two elementary schools. Sorayao Cogorno-Frutos (kneeling) said she attended Helen Haller Elementary School and would like children to have a similar K-5 grade-level experience.