Wednesday night at the Issaquah School District administration building on Northwest Holly Street, members of the community connected to Maple Hills Elementary in Renton spoke out during public input to the school board to protest the involuntary transfer of two instructors.

Adora Callas, a special education instructor, and fifth-grade teacher Mary Shimchick have each been employed with Maple Hills Elementary for more than 13 years. Both were recently notified that they would begin the 2015-2016 school year at different campuses. Callas was assigned to Issaquah High School and Shimchick was assigned to Discovery Elementary School in Sammamish.

“If you had (told) me two weeks ago that I would be in this position, I would not have believed it,” Shimchick said to the board during the public input session. “But here I am.”

A spokesperson for the district told the Reporter federal privacy laws preclude the Issaquah School District from discussing personnel matters publicly. When approached by the Reporter, Callas and Shimchick declined to comment further on the matter, though Shimchick noted she was not aware of a reason for the transfer.

“I heard from others that it was said (the transfer) was not about my teaching skills, therefore I can only assume it is false judgment of my character based on hearsay and lies,” Shimchick said at the board meeting. “I have nothing in my personnel file that I am aware of and yet I am a target.”

Following news of the transfer, dozens of letters were submitted to the school board asking them to reconsider.

One of those letters came from Martin Friedman, the associate director of YWCA Works’ Passage Point, a housing program for parents coming out of the corrections system. Friedman’s letter, read to the board by Pastor Don Burnett, praised Callas’s work with students of reforming parents and noted she had “stepped up” alongside other staff in 2012 to improve school relations with the program. The letter also pondered whether — as wondered by others, it read — Callas had been labeled as a “troublemaker” or “difficult.”

“She is an incredible educator and she is a professional who understands how to build strong community with populations labeled as ‘difficult’ while at the same time remaining professional,” Friedman wrote.

Deborah Jacobson, an educational assistant at Maple Hills, said news of the transfers had contributed to a four-year decline of staff morale, describing attitudes as “confused, wary and genuinely disappointed.”

“We’re confused because we’re not really sure what is being asked of us,” Jacobson said. “We’re told that the district wants to mix things up at our school to make it a better place. But they’re doing that by involuntarily exiting two very talented and successful teachers from our family.”

Under its collective bargaining agreement with the Issaquah Education Association (link goes to agreement, relevant information under Article 7) the district can initiate staff transfers for reasons including changing enrollment, budgetary shifts and the termination or addition of educational programs.

The written procedure calls for the district to first call for volunteers among certificated staff. If not enough certificated staff volunteer, the district may initiate transfers involuntarily based on a written procedure that considers factors such as seniority or unique skills.

But PTA President Beth Hardy said Callas and Shimchick were important teachers in Maple Hills’ community. She tearfully read a letter from a parent detailing how her son, Matthew, said his attendance in Shimchick’s class was the first time he felt like he belonged.

“Maple Hills has already had a problem with teacher turnover,” Hardy said. “We cannot lose more experienced and admired educators.”

Prior to public input, a school board official told the audience that, though dialogue about the transfers had been largely civil, Supt. Ron Thiele had received one threat.

An officer with the Issaquah Police Department met with district staff earlier in the evening and a patrol car remained in the parking lot for the duration of the school board meeting.

An investigation into the threat remained open as of Tuesday afternoon. The department could not share details of that investigation while the case remained open.