The Blaine school board voted in favor of terminating the employment of cheer coach Christie Peetoom at its October 25 regular meeting after she didn’t meet school exemption accommodations for the vaccine mandate.
On the board’s meeting agenda, under personnel matters in the consent agenda, was a list of staff members who were to be either hired, separated, or approved requests for retirement, resignation or leave from the district. In an all encompassing vote on the consent agenda, the board approved the hiring of 17 people to the district as well as six leave requests and five resignations, according to the agenda.
It’s unclear how many district employees left the district due to the state Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Blaine school district superintendent Christopher Granger told The Northern Light in an email it would be difficult to report the number of individuals separated from the district without identifying them.
As of the October 18 mandate deadline, 91 percent of district employees were vaccinated, and the remaining 9 percent were offered an accommodation plan for their requests for religious and medical exemptions, Granger wrote in an email.
Before the vote, board vice president Laura McKinney removed the separation of high school cheer advisor Christie Peetoom to be discussed and voted on separately by the board. After an hour-and-a-half executive session where the board discussed the employment separation with Peetoom and legal counsel, the separation was sustained in a 4-1 vote with McKinney opposed.
Peetoom, who was present at the meeting, stood and thanked McKinney before leaving the meeting after the vote.
As little was discussed on Peetoom’s firing during the regular meeting session in order to protect her privacy, those in the audience were left wondering exactly what was discussed during the executive session. What could be gathered was pieced together from what speakers said during the public comment portion of the meeting and the board members’ ambiguous comments at the end of the meeting.
Board president Charles Gibson urged speakers to refrain from using names or referring to a specific position directly to protect the privacy of staff members.
Peetoom addressed the board.
“In addition to claiming and submitting both a religious and a medical exemption from Covid-19 vaccination, I also claimed a religious exemption from testing,” she said.
Peetoom said the testing exemption was denied. She was told that, “It would place an undue hardship on the school.” She went on to say she agreed to maintain social distancing, wear a KN95 mask and take her car to away games to avoid exposure as well as offering to take a Covid-19 antibody test every six to 12 months to determine whether she still had antibodies since she had previously had contracted the virus.
Peetoom said the district was being stricter than necessary under the state’s mandate and Whatcom County Health Department guidance. She also said the district was treating unvaccinated staff unfairly.
“The staff who are unvaccinated from Covid-19 are being treated in a manner that has caused division, pain, stress, anguish, loss of sleep and a lack of respect for leadership,” she said. “The exemption process was exhausting and emotional. The accommodations were changed several times. We were promised negotiations; we were promised each negotiation would be made specific to each employee. Instead, we were given some of the strictest rules in the state even though not required.”
Granger wrote in an email that each accommodation request was reviewed individually. Employees with an accommodation from the vaccination mandate are required to test for Covid-19 weekly, wear personal protective equipment and social distance, he said.
According to guidance from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, school districts should follow a standard process for every exemption request and examine each request on its own by analyzing the facts surrounding the request.
Peetoom finished by telling the board that it has the ability to stand up to wrongful treatment of unvaccinated staff. She received applause from about 10 audience members, many of whom also spoke in support of her.
Peetoom told The Northern Light in an email that she felt it was best for herself and her family to not comment.
At the end of the meeting, McKinney said she was against unvaccinated staff and students being subjected to more testing than vaccinated staff and students. “If we are randomly testing people once a week, then I would say we should do it for everybody,” she said. “We should test all of the kids if we need to test a team, not just the unvaccinated ones. And you should test all of the staff, if you need to test.”
“Laura, I would not agree with what you said,” Gibson responded. “You and I have had these discussions, and we know we don’t agree on the same issues. The board is trying to do the best it can to protect the students and the staff.”
Marilyn Martin, a community member who refused to wear a mask at the September board meeting causing its adjournment, briefly interrupted the board president without her mask on. Gibson continued, “We have some disagreement here [on the board]. We’re not uniform in what we are coming to, but I can assure you it has had much, much discussion and consideration.
“We are protecting from liability against the district. We are consistent with other districts. We are trying to do the best we can to protect everybody involved, including those who are unvaccinated,” Gibson added. “If they choose to self-identify as unvaccinated, that is their decision, but if we choose to make that publicly known, we’re at fault. And we won’t do that.”
Board member Dougal Thomas finished the board’s comments on the matter by saying the board knew what Granger’s plans were.
“All of us knew what his plan was with the accommodations, well before it was out there,” Thomas said. “And none of us, not one of us, questioned what it was he was planning to do. We were concerned about exemptions, not losing our people, taking care of people, making sure they didn’t lose their jobs.”
Thomas repeated that no one on the board questioned the superintendent’s Covid-19 mandate accommodation plan until it was going to cost someone their job.
“We all knew what he was going to do. He told us; we didn’t question it,” he said. “And now we are going to question it because we heard from a couple of people. Myself as a board member, I wish I would’ve looked ahead and saw that this test accommodation was going to be such a big deal, but I didn’t. None of us did.”
During public comment, the board also received support from community members.
“I am comfortable with what is happening here at Blaine schools,” retired Blaine teacher Glenn Tuski said. “That we are attempting to keep all the kids safe. Some find Covid threatening, some do not. But addressing the whole school population, I feel that you, the school board, are doing your best. And many times I feel sorry for you having to muddle through this, as we’ve all muddled through this. But I commend you for taking the safest route possible for keeping all our kids safe.”
Dorita Gray said she’s saddened and concerned that a small, loud and very political group of people have attempted to take away and hinder the efforts of those who are working hard to get the community safely through the pandemic. She said she was saddened more by the letter the board wrote to county elected officials that voiced the concerns of parents against the mask and vaccine mandates.
“We, and others like me, respectfully disagree with those who are willing to risk doing nothing, and thus keeping us in this situation even longer,” Gray said. “Those who are willing to put their personal beliefs over the common good. And those who choose to make this health situation political.”
Gray added, “My hope is that you consider this silent, respectful majority and not dismiss their silence for not being interested or caring.”
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