Dotson appointed to carry out Soap Lake superintendent duties
An unexpected management change has occurred at the Soap Lake School District after former Superintendent Sunshine Pray resigned last week. The SSSD Board of Directors has chosen Board President Curt Dotson to handle some of Pray’s former duties in accordance with state law.
Rebecca Pettingill/Columbia Basin Herald
Former Soap Lake School District Superintendent Sunshine Pray reads to students on Feb. 2. Pray recently resigned from her position amidst other resignations and an unspecified investigation.
SOAP LAKE - The Soap Lake School Board voted Monday night in a special meeting to appoint Board President Curt Dotson to assume the duties of the Soap Lake superintendent position.
The move was necessitated by the resignation of former Soap Lake School District Superintendent Sunshine Pray, who resigned last week.
Under RCW 28A.330.200, a state law, “Whenever a district shall be without the services of such a superintendent and the business of the district necessitates action thereby, the board shall appoint any member thereof to carry out the superintendent's powers and duties for the district.”
The board called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and immediately went into executive session. Ater about 20 minutes the board returned from meeting in executive session to tell the dozen or so attendees the reason for the meeting, which had not been specifically described on the agenda.
Dotson explained that appointing a board member to assume the powers and duties of the superintendent, essentially an interim superintendent, until a replacement could be found, was the only reason for the meeting. A motion was then made to appoint Dotson, which was passed by the board.
At the end of the meeting, several of the attendees had questions for the board, one of them being if Pray would receive the financial remainder of her contract. Dotson said he could not discuss personnel matters.
Pary’s resignation was among four received by the board recently. Three other SLSD staff members resigned recently as well. Paraeducator Morgan Evenstad, custodian Jessika Wyman and middle school science teacher Charles Hansen also left their positions with the district.
Wyman said in her resignation notice that she had left due to a hostile work environment with an individual at the district and that no actions had been taken to address the issue.
“It was brought ot the attention of (Pray) and no actions were taken (by her),” Wyman said in the letter.
Wyman’s last day was noted as Feb. 4, Evenstad’s Feb. 15 and Hansen’s at the end of this school year.
In a previous interview, Dotson said Clear Risk Solutions out of Ephrata is conducting an investigation into the district. He did not indicate what the investigation was about but said he expects results within a few weeks.
Soap Lake Police Chief Ryan Cox said there are no active criminal investigations from his department relating to SLSD at this time.
Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.
