MARYSVILLE—A full room of approximately 100 parents and staff cheered the Marysville School District Board of Directors’ decision to unanimously confirm Dr. David Burgess as interim superintendent and for severing ties with Superintendent Dr. Zachary Robbins, amidst the district’s ongoing financial crisis during Thursday night’s Special Board meeting. Dr. Robbins was not present at the meeting and the Board’s decisions were effective immediately.
“First, I want to thank Dr. Robbins for his service as superintendent of the Marysville School District,” Board President Connor Krebbs said after the vote. “I also want to thanked Dr. Dave Burgess for stepping in as the interim superintendent.”
Dr. Burgess is the former Superintendent of the Lake Stevens School District and joined the Marysville School District as interim Human Resource Director in June of 2024. He is a 19-year resident of Tulalip and has a career spanning 52 years in education, teaching students for 18 of those years.
“Our house is on fire, we got to do something about it together,” Burgess told attendees to applause. “We have got to come together because absent that we are on the precipice of an immense gap, a possible another double levy failure. We got to restore confidence in the district and each other, and I hope that together, we can build the teams that can make this a [successful] reality; our children deserve it.”
Burgess offered hope that with the community’s support, the district will overcome the “difficult choices” ahead including possible layoffs.
“This is not about me, this about we, and if we don’t pull together, we’re condemned to finding ourselves in this situation over and over again; and it is not good for kids, and it is not good for any of us,” Burgess said.
He added that he is “committed and all-in” and challenged the community to be “all-in in getting this district turned around.”
“I appreciate there were a lot of different people in the room who really seem supportive of this new change,” Cindy Gobel chair of Best Schools Marysville, a local group that advocated for the school levy that passed in 2023, told the Lynnwood Times. “He [Burgess] presentation to us as the new [interim] superintendent was very heartfelt and very connecting and I think everybody in the room can feel that and I really look forward to the growth that opportunity he is giving us as a community to step up and be supportive.”
Another Marysville resident shared that “now, the really hard work begins.”
“I would say, cautiously optimistic,” Ron Friesen, a retired music teacher, told the Lynnwood Times. “We have gone through many transitions in the last ten or fifteen years and none of them have worked out well, but I think we have as good a shot as we could possibly have right now. Now is when the really hard work begins, it is right now.”
Mackenzie, a student at Liberty Elementary, one of three schools on the chopping block, hopes that with Burgess’ appointment the district will now reassess which schools it is considering closing. The other two schools under consideration to be closed are Cascade Elementary and Totem Middle schools.
“My hope is that because he is from the community, that he will understand the need for those schools to stay open and honor the history in our community and try to move forward in a productive way,” Mackenzie’s mom Laura told the Lynnwood Times.
Former superintendent Dr. Zachary Robbins severance agreement
The Lynnwood Times is awaiting an official copy Dr. Robbins’ severance agreement. However, the district did share that a “no fault” and “amicable severance agreement” was reached, and that Dr. Robbins agreed to “waive his full contract payout” but there is some ambiguity surrounding a possible partial payout.
In 2021 after then-Superintendent Jason Thompson resigned, he received a settlement of 9 months of his $21,629.85 monthly pay—$194,668.65— despite him already being absent four months prior to his separation agreement. The district was also employing then-interim Superintendent Chris Pearson.
OSPI appointed Special Administrator Dr. Arthur Jarvis in September, which State Superintendent Chris Reykdal described as a necessary but “unprecedented step” in the OSPI financial oversight process following a damning audit report of the Marysville School District in August.
“I have lost confidence that the district has the decision-making tools or current personnel necessary to fix its financial situation on their own,” Reykdal wrote in an August letter to the district and Superintendent Robbins.
As of today, the district has stood by Superintendent Robbins and his leadership over the last two years. Below is the district’s statement in its entirety:
“The Marysville School District wishes to announce that it has reached an amicable severance agreement with its Superintendent, Dr. Zachary Robbins. Through no fault of either party, both the School Board and Dr. Robbins believe that it is in the best interests of the District and the Superintendent to move forward with a change in leadership. The Board and Dr. Robbins recognize that the District faces significant challenges, including financial problems that pre-date Dr. Robbins’s tenure. The Special Administrator for OSPI has approved this agreement.
“The School Board would like to thank Dr. Robbins for providing high-quality service to the students, staff and community of the Marysville School District since Dr. Robbins began his tenure in July 2022. During his tenure, the District has had many successes, including a rise in student test scores across all subjects in state-wide exams, an increase in AP participation rates, safety measures to lower behavioral incidents, successful efforts to pass a school levy, securing state capital funds to help repair aging buildings and implementing a data management system to help schools access and use data on performance, attendance, graduation and behavior for better decision-making. Although Dr. Robbins’s current contract expires in June 2027, the severance will be effective immediately. The School Board thanks Dr. Robbins for voluntarily agreeing to waive his full contract payout.”
Author: Mario Lotmore
