Everett schools superintendent to retire

The superintendent of the Everett School District will leave her post months earlier than expected, citing a death threat she said she received in April.

Carol Whitehead had reported she received the threat after news broke in April that she had allowed the installation of a video camera to monitor the classroom of a journalism teacher suspected of helping students put out an underground publication at their high school.

In a statement sent to district staff and students' families, Whitehead called her eight-year tenure at the helm of the school district "a great pleasure." Whitehead is declining media interviews.

The district says Whitehead's early retirement has nothing to do with the surveillance incident. She had planned to retire in January, but now will step down in September.

The Everett School Board has tapped Deputy Superintendent Karst Brandsma to take over for the coming school year, a decision that has drawn the ire of the local teachers union due to Brandsma's involvement in the surveillance.

Despite criticism of the decision, the district has continued to express confidence in Brandsma.

School-board members "have a full understanding that the surveillance was entirely in the interest of protecting the students," said Mary Waggoner, the district's director of communications. "They have no questions about his actions then or his leadership now."

The district initially denied the superintendent had any involvement in the surveillance, which occurred in late May and early June 2007. But Whitehead, according to reports by The Herald newspaper of Everett, later admitted she was consulted before the camera was installed.

The camera monitored the classroom of a veteran English and journalism teacher who, despite warnings not to, was helping her students put out an underground publication using school computers.

The teacher, Kay Powers, was fired last November but was reinstated in April to a teaching post at Henry M. Jackson High School after reaching a settlement with the district.

Soon after reports of the surveillance were made public in April, Whitehead said she received a death threat, an incident police are still investigating. There are no suspects and police wouldn't discuss details of the threat, including how it was conveyed.

"These anonymous types of death threats can be very difficult to solve," said Everett Police Sgt. Robert Goetz. "There aren't any witnesses and there's very little evidence to go on."

Whitehead's supporters say the surveillance incident at the tail end of her tenure should not be seen as a black eye on an otherwise impressive legacy.

Under her guidance, the 18,500-student school district lowered dropout rates and maintained scores higher than average in statewide student-standardized testing. In 2004, Whitehead was named Washington state superintendent of the year.

"She's been an excellent superintendent," said school-board member Karen Madsen. "She has focused all the work of the district on increasing student achievement. The results have been stellar."

Robert Faturechi: 206-464-2393 or rfaturechi@seattletimes.com