FORKS — It’s been far from a happy spring for Steve Quick and his family.
But the Forks High School principal says he isn’t quitting.
Neither will he concede that he is the overly authoritarian administrator or the nightmarish principal that some people have made him out to be.
In fact, Quick — who throughout most of March and April found himself in the middle of raucous community dissent that included two student walkouts and packed School Board meetings — said he hopes to mend fences with even some of his most outspoken critics.
And he reiterated hopes to return to his office after summer break.
“I don’t hold grudges,” he said.
“We need to learn to work together for the best interest of the students.
“If the School District decides that’s what the best interest of students is, for me to move on, then that’s what we do.”
His children chastised
In an interview Friday, Quick detailed the difficulties of having his own staff publicly call for his firing at a recent overflowing School Board meeting, as well as seeing his own children subjected to verbal harassment as a result of his unpopularity.
But perhaps most importantly, Quick — whose year-end review will be completed soon by Superintendent Frank Walter — discussed his two-year tenure as principal.
“My door is always open,” said Quick, who was principal for three years at Naselle School, a kindergarten-through-12th grade school in Southern Washington, before moving to Forks in July 2003.
“If a student has a concern, I listen to them,” he said.
Given the pressures of having to quickly raise student test scores to meet new rigid state standards, Quick said he does his best to work with teachers and staff in a collaborative way.
“I’ve tried to make it more a grass-roots-type effort, to develop goals together as a school,” Quick said.
“That was the need when they hired me.
“But do I make decisions? Yes.
“Do I hold people accountable? Absolutely.”
When asked if he was overly authoritarian, as described by some staff members publicly and privately, Quick denied it.
“I do have core beliefs and I will stick to my guns,” he said.
“But authoritarian, no. I think I’m pretty darn easy to get along with.”
Quick said he was taken aback with the breadth of community fallout that followed his disciplinary action at a March 2 basketball in Centralia — an episode that came to be known as the “Centralia incident.”
