The South Whidbey School Board recently received a letter urging the board to reclaim its “rightful authority” by distancing itself from state and federal agencies.

The letter was accompanied by a series of COVID-related public records requests that appear to go well beyond what documents the district would have and includes the phrase “self-assembling tentacled nanobots,” according to a school official.

The letter, read aloud by Clinton residents Margaret King and Maureen Greene during the board’s March 23 meeting, criticizes the Washington State School Directors’ Association, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and National School Board Association for withholding “state funding over matters that should be a personal medical choice for every citizen” and overstepping “lawful boundaries.”

“The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, has clearly threatened to withhold taxpayer funds that rightfully belong to our school district, based on whether or not we comply with health policies we may or may not agree with,” the letter states.

The letter supports proposed legislation by Rep. Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet. The representative of the 19th Legislative District attempted to introduce a bill during the past legislative session that would have made school board membership to the Washington State School Directors’ Association, or WSSDA, optional.

Membership to WSSDA, a state agency, is currently mandatory. According to its website, the organization was formed in 1922 and consists of 1,477 locally elected school board directors across 295 school districts in the state that serve over 1.1 million students.

The letter asks the South Whidbey School Board to support Rep. McEntire’s failed bill, to urge WSSDA to withdraw membership from the National School Board Association, or NSBA, and to pass a resolution “acknowledging and affirming that parents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s future.”

“We, the parents of Washington finally comprehend how little authority you have left to represent us,” the letter states to the board. “It is time we come together to restore your authority and ours.”

The letter bemoans the fact that school board members must follow state law and take governance training in cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion standards. The letter erroneously states that this includes “Critical Race Theory, sexual education for children as young as 5 years of age and curriculums that promote transgenderism.”

Board member Brooke Willeford interjected during the meeting, pointing out that the diversity, equity and inclusion training is not the same as critical race theory, a graduate-level course. He also emphasized that sexual education is not taught to 5-year-olds within the school district, or required to be taught by state law.

In an email to the South Whidbey Record, Willeford indicated other falsehoods were within the letter, such as the claim that the NSBA attempted to weaponize the FBI against concerned parents. In reality, he explained, the NSBA requested assistance in protecting its members from a small group of people across the nation who have threatened or acted violently towards school board members.

He also addressed other claims made in the letter relating to the state agencies mentioned.

“WSSDA does not remove decision-making authority from any school board,” he wrote. “They are an advisory association which provides valuable legal and policy advice, as well as advising the state and federal legislatures on issues which its members (school directors across the state) believe are important to their districts.”

In addition, he pointed out that OSPI’s power to withhold funding from school districts that fail to follow executive orders from the governor is derived from state code that give the governor broad emergency powers and the OSPI’S “supervision over all matters pertaining to the public schools of the state.”

“This was mentioned not only in regards to the mask mandate, but also to requirements to provide in-person learning, and is neither a bribe nor extortion, but rather execution of the office’s duties,” Willeford wrote.

The letter from community members ends on an ominous note.

“As we finish the 2021-2022 school year, we envision a harmonious partnership between parents, school district leadership and legislators to restore the freedom of personal choice over what our teachers and students wear on their faces and put in their bodies, as well as restore authority to the local level of government,” the letter stated. “However, if these freedoms are ignored by the South Whidbey School Board, we will take our children out of the public school system by the fall of 2022.”

The letter goes on to add that over 55,000 children have been withdrawn from the state’s public school system this year, and that number will triple if “mask mandates are re-implemented, and a Covid vaccine is made a requirement of attendance.”

Here, too, Willeford found error.

“The enrollment declines in Washington State public schools over the past two years have been due to a variety of reasons, ranging from too many public health mandates to too few,” he wrote. “These enrollment declines have also been nationwide. The largest number I could find for loss of enrollment in a single year was 2019-2020, at 39,000 students statewide (around 4% of the total student population of the state). 55,000 students may represent a 2-year total.”

A series of public records requests seek proof of communication between the school district and the agencies mentioned in the letter about mandating masking and COVID-19 vaccinations. Some of the requests appear to call for information beyond the school district’s realm, including contact information of vaccine manufacturers and scientific studies proving masks and vaccines are effective.

Willeford said in an email that the requests are part of a statewide effort to add work to school districts and try to cost them significant funds if they fail to fulfill any reasonable part of the requests.

“Requests that go far beyond reasonable or proper bounds for a public records request take valuable time away from the district’s ability to serve our students, staff and community,” he wrote.

Some Oak Harbor residents read a similar letter at a school board meeting earlier this year.