Federal Way school board member Danny Peterson said his goodbyes on Tuesday evening.
It was his last school board meeting as director of District 3 in the Federal Way Public Schools district.
“Four years, it’s been a long time – a good time,” Peterson said at the meeting. “Tonight’s bittersweet for me and I just want to thank all of you that are in the audience that represent the nearly 150,000 people that make up the community here and the 23,000 students, the 40 campuses that amass our district.”
Peterson said it was a privilege to serve on the board that made some very big decisions during his term. One of those decisions was hiring Superintendent Tammy Campbell, the fourth superintendent to serve the district since Peterson was elected.
“… I’ve got some skin in the game,” he said. “I’ve got kids that are in this district and I am so excited for the future of Federal Way schools and for my kids being a part of this district.”
Campbell and the rest of the school board members thanked Peterson for his work on the board-superintendent relationship based on policy governance and for keeping the mindset of serving all students instead of one or two interests.
“Although it’s been a short while, I’m a better superintendent because I had the opportunity to work with director Peterson,” Campbell said.
Board president Geoffery McAnalloy said even though he was one of the initial naysayers around policy governance in the beginning, he attributed Peterson as the driving force to the work that’s been done.
“You were here for four years through all of it,” McAnalloy said. “Even though many of us pushed back and wondered if it was the right thing to do, it definitely was.”
Board member Hiroshi Eto said he thinks Peterson’s background as a firefighter had a lot to do with that push because “when you have policies and procedures, and you don’t follow them, it’s a matter of life and death.”
“And so even though the stakes aren’t as high, he truly believes that correct policies and procedures and continuous improvement, we can improve this organization,” Eto said.
Board vice president Claire Wilson said in the “rocky times” and “great times” throughout Peterson’s term, which aligned with Wilson’s first term, she’s appreciated having him as a “guide on the side.”
“We don’t always agree and the point of a board is you’re not supposed to and that once decisions are made, we support each other in those decisions,” Wilson said. “But to get to that place, sometimes you have to experience a bit of disequilibrium, and we’re kind of comfortable doing that and because of that I think that the work that we’re doing and the work we’ll continue to do in our district will kind of live forward.”
After Peterson thanked his board members, Liz Drake was sworn in as his replacement for director of District 3. She was followed by the swearing in of Wilson and Eto, who renewed their terms when they were elected in November.
The school board voted 3-1 for McAnalloy to serve as board president and unanimously for Wilson as vice president and Drake as the new legislative representative.