PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School Board voted unanimously to accept Superintendent Marty Brewer’s retirement effective Aug. 29, 2025.
Brewer announced his intention to “transition to semi-retirement and new ventures” in a Nov. 12 letter to the board.
Board member Mary Hebert praised Brewer last Thursday for prioritizing students in decision-making.
“I’ve been in education for a long time and Marty really rises to the top with his commitment to students,” said Hebert, a former teacher and Port Angeles native. “Thank you for all the care you’ve given to our students and families.”
Sandy Long, a longtime educator who has served on the board for nine years, thanked Brewer for his leadership, particularly his work with the board to develop the school district’s 30-year facilities plan.
“I’m thrilled with the way you’ve made well-constructed plans for the future of programs and resources for our students,” she said.
“We will miss you when you’re gone, but we still have a lot of things to do before you leave.”
Brewer said he would be fully invested in his role as the district moves ahead with searching for his replacement.
He noted that the recent bond measure to fund replacements for Port Angeles High School and Franklin Elementary School was approved by 63.35 percent of voters — above the 60 percent threshold it needed to pass.
“Port Angeles is a special place,” said Brewer, who was hired by the district in 2018. “People care about their community, their schools and about what happens here.”
After adjourning Thursday, the board left the administration building to participate in its annual joint governmental meeting with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center. The district and the tribe signed a three-year memorandum of understanding in 2023 to develop educational strategies for closing the achievement gap for Native American students.
The district has been working to more accurately identify Native American/Alaska Native students to better address gaps in academic performance and capture federal funding, Assistant Superintendent Michelle Olsen said.
As of Oct. 1, there were 457 Native American students from all tribes enrolled (13.5 percent of total enrollment). Of them, about a quarter were Lower Elwha Klallam and the rest were from other tribes.
In 2023-2024, Indian Education and Impact Aid program grants provided the district with about $327,000 to fund or partially fund three Native American advocates and the district’s Native American liaison, Carmen Watson-Charles.
Olsen said efforts to boost achievement appear to be working. Children in the Lower Elwha Klallam’s kindergarten readiness program are outperforming other students in the district and the state in language, literacy, math, cognitive, physical and social-emotional measures.
“This is incredible,” Olsen said. “We know the best intervention of all is early intervention.”
Attendance in all grades across the district has increased 7 percent from 2022 to 2023, she said.
High school principal Jeff Lunt said strategies and programs that help 11th- and 12th-graders “get across the finish line” and graduate on time, such as recapturing credit for classes they had failed, is helping all students.
Since 2019-2020, he said, the graduation rate for Native American/Alaska Native and all other students has stayed above 90 percent.
“It’s almost unheard of to have a high school with consistent 90 percent graduation rates,” Lunt said.
The district has incorporated Native American perspectives into curricula at all grade levels. It offers Klallam language instruction at Stevens Middle School and at the high school, where Wendy Sampson teaches Klallam language and Native American studies.
Sampson said this fall’s enrollment of 33 Lower Elwha Klallam and non-tribal students is the largest in the program’s 25-year history.
While the district is seeing improvements in a number of student measures, community-wide challenges like a lack of affordable housing, substance abuse and limited access to transportation that had a negative impact on achievement appear to be increasing.
Summer Cooper, the district’s Native American family navigator, said she and her associate, social worker Alicia Scofield, have seen the number of referrals they received related to homelessness and housing rise 10 percent from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024.
“Sharing this data shows what is happening in our schools, but it also shows what is happening in our larger community,” Cooper said.
Hebert praised the tribe’s liaisons, advocates, teachers and Chairwoman Frances Charles for the effort, funding and vision that made the partnership work.
“You have really a made a difference,” Hebert said. “You’re all having meaningful inventions to make sure students are successful.”
At the regular board meeting Thursday, Brewer swore in 17-year-old Port Angeles High School junior Faerin Tait as a non-voting student representative on the board. There is still an opening for a Lincoln High School student to apply to be a representative on the board. Students earn 0.5 elective credits for each semester. The application can be found at tinyurl.com/mrxbpt4c
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
