PULLMAN, WA – Outgoing Pullman High School Athletics and Activities Director Wendy Kruger has released a statement to the community.

Kruger’s position as full-time athletics and activities director was recently eliminated by the school district due to a budget shortfall. Those duties are being reassigned to the newly hired PHS assistant principal. The decision drew strong opposition from many Pullman residents who voiced their concerns to the school board during a contentious meeting last month.

The trustees upheld the decision with a two-to-two tie vote which lacked a majority and maintained eliminating the post. Trustee Amanda Tanner was not at the meeting. Kruger spoke to the school board privately in executive session prior to the vote. Below is her statement to the board which she has provided to Pullman Radio News to publish.

Dear PHS Students, Coaches, Advisors, Parents, Officials, Dr. Tingstad, and our Greater Pullman Community, Thank you all for your support and kindness over the last month. I am especially proud of our PHS students who used their voices to stand up for what they believe to be true and good! It has been my joy to serve you as your Athletics & Activities Director these last four years. We have rolled up our sleeves together and accomplished some amazing things! This role was not without hardship but I will forever be grateful for how we have learned and grown together. I walk away from this role heartbroken but grateful. I am sharing my statement below in hopes to end my time as your AD with transparency.

Many of you stood before our school board with courage and shared your experience working with me and pleading for my job. The words below are what I was able to say during the executive session. The underlined parts are what I would have shared if given more time; I am choosing to leave in the underlined portions so our community gets the whole picture.

There is more I could say or wish I had said but those things will come out through further conversations with our community moving forward. Our community deserves transparent and servant leadership from the top down. We can cultivate change if we unite, use our voices and demand accountability. Not for vengeance sake but for our children and community, we must engage the system and be a part of the solution. Pullman is a great place to live and It’s a Great Day to be a Greyhound! Go Hounds!

AD Kruger

Good Evening School Board Members and District Leadership,

I am here tonight to share with you that I am overall grateful for the 17+ years I have served the Pullman School District. I am also going to take this opportunity to share some of my experiences and information I’ve learned as a district employee; some positive and some, in my opinion, disheartening. I have grown up in this district, and I believe the summary of my career thus far is one marked by passion, hard work, competency, and a desire to bring people together to accomplish great things.

I do not enjoy conflict, but I appreciate where it can lead us if we remain committed to our common goals of putting students first and serving our community. I believe we have the greatest opportunity to grow when we are experiencing discomfort. My hope is that as I share, you would see me as a person who loves our Pullman community, not just a dollar sign. Additionally, I would like to share with you and celebrate some of the accomplishments that Pullman High School has experienced over the last four years.

I started my journey with PSD through coaching, and I’ve been a special education paraprofessional, a special education teacher, health and fitness teacher, and am now serving as your Athletics & Activities Director. It has been an honor to watch students excel on the court, in the pool, on the field, in club activities, on the stage and, yes, most importantly in the classroom. It is a gift to be entrusted with stewarding our young peoples’ futures. I am especially thankful for my team of coaches, advisors, our booster club leadership, parents, maintenance and custodial teams, the community members who have served as game management volunteers, my fellow athletic directors, the WIAA staff, our officials, bus drivers, community financial partners, and our media personnel who celebrate our students’ successes and growth. The student achievements that have been accomplished in these four years would not have been possible without these individuals. In education, we are in the business of people; we should see them, value them, and thank them.

When I was first asked to serve as the interim athletic director, I was hesitant and felt under qualified. I told Juston Pollestad “no” to begin with as I liked teaching PE & Health to middle schoolers. Also getting off work at 3:20 to be with my family was pretty great; a little different from my life now. I also shared with Juston that I had struggled with my identity and self-worth being wrapped up in my performance as a young athlete. If I performed well, I felt great about myself; if I went 0 for 3 at the plate, I was rethinking my life trajectory. I did not want to step into a role where I would create an environment where young people would experience the same struggle with their self-worth. Juston told me I was the perfect person for the job because of my concern for this. I have certainly made mistakes along the way, and I’ve done my best to grow from those mistakes. I’ve learned I need to work to be quick to apologize and ask forgiveness when my full speed ahead mentality is too much for others. An area of growth I am most proud of is that I have learned I need to surround myself with people that are gifted in different ways than I am. People with complementary skills create a beautiful team that can conquer the greatest challenges when we learn to put aside our inadequacies and appreciate each other. As a natural introvert, I was taken aback that as soon as I accepted the AD role, my social circle exploded overnight to include the entire Pullman community. Going to the grocery store once again felt like I was a special education teacher, however IEP meetings in aisle 5 became playing time parent meetings. As overwhelming as that was at first, I have cultivated a deeper love for the people of the community I get to serve. As an educator that loved the classroom and working directly with students, I was afraid my director role would lead me to lose connection with the students. Juston and I brainstormed the idea that I would supervise lunches and open the gym for students to move around and have fun which would also allow me to stay connected with students. I have created and supervised a safe space for kids to enjoy friendly competition with their peers. The interactions this duty has afforded me with students are priceless. This is where I get to bring up the media reports my coaches cc me on so I can celebrate the wins or mourn the losses and help to shift athletes into a growth mindset before they head to practice. I can also celebrate DECA, drama, FFA, and the rest of our diverse club members as their advisors also keep me in the loop on club accomplishments. I check in with athletes who I know struggle with academics to make sure they know grade checks are coming and ask if they need any support. An interaction that is special to me was when a senior athlete who had experienced a 4 week suspension from competition due to his grades not meeting expectations, brought his freshman brother up to me, introduced us and asked me to check his grades just like I had his because he knew it was for his brother’s good to have me looking out for him. Through intentionality, I’ve still had opportunities to teach, work alongside with, and have a positive impact for our students.

I’ve learned that all of us have influence as we lead; we need to make sure we are using our influence for the good of those around us. First, you have to be willing to serve those that you are leading; this builds trust and a bond that cannot be broken when hardship strikes. Second, you have to be willing to do the hard things in the dark so that the things in the light will go well. Hours of planning are necessary to provide a great event for our students and community to enjoy. I’ve also learned that it isn’t difficult to value or appreciate people through small acts of kindness and validation of their hard work which is so important since we are in the business of people. I have taken joy in celebrating my coaches and advisors so that they can put students first. The person in the middle needs to be seen and valued; you cannot jump straight to the student and act like those serving the student do not matter. We cannot hold a high level of expectations if we do not have a high level of support and care.

What a farewell tour this year’s AD conference was for me with my fellow colleagues. My husband explained this conference well to our children. He called it the State Championship for the Athletic Directors. The best of the best are in attendance and the professional development we receive is second to none. Inspiring speakers, hard working individuals sharing joys and struggles so we can learn from one another, revisiting WIAA rules to ensure integrity in our competitions, freely sharing materials we have each developed to help make each other better. The dedication to each other’s growth and success is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. Everyone wants to belong to an organization such as this; something bigger than yourself. Something that draws you close and is committed to challenge and encourage you along the way. My heart’s desire is that the Pullman School District would renew their commitment to be such an organization. As one of the speakers stated we often don’t need to be taught something new about culture, we just need to be reminded. I believe our community has been reminded of what they value and are now committed to making sure our school district is held accountable for it.

One of my conference sessions led us through the Six Critical Questions about leadership which are found in Patrick Lencioni’s book called, The Advantage. The first question is “Why do we exist?” I have existed as the Athletics & Activities Director of Pullman High School to create opportunities for our students to grow in character and thrive in competition. I love to do this work so that students are prepared for life after high school so that they are employable adults, so that they can communicate effectively to navigate hardships, so that they can someday be loving husbands and wives, so that they can confidently and gracefully parent their own children, so that they are able to leave a legacy of love and care of their own. We exist to positively impact our current generation so they will do the same to the next. The presenter shared the idea of planting seeds so the next generations can know shade. That people will know what our roots look like by what our fruit looks like. This is beautiful and reminds us that what we do matters and has ripple effects beyond our days on this earth. I want to exist to serve, to flip the triangle upside down and live out servant leadership towards the ones I have come to love and cherish so that they will turn and do the same for others. The Pullman School district says it exists to ensure learning while challenging and supporting each student to achieve full potential. Athletics and Activities is a huge part of that mission; we make sure students want to come to school, get to class on time, pass their classes, abide by school conduct rules and work to be a positive member of our school community. We can do both academics and athletics & activities well; they do not need to compete. A well directed Athletics & Activities Department is your number one intervention program to keep kids in school; we connect students with trusted adults, and if students have at least one caring adult in their life, research shows they are more likely to succeed.

Question number 2 is “How must we behave?” These are the actions we consistently demonstrate and model to those around us. Examples of our developing core values in the PHS athletics & activities department are: character, community & commitment. We must continually model these behaviors to be genuine, authentic and trustworthy for our students, fellow staff and our greater community. When some in our district violate these core values by acting with a lack of integrity, often the data we collect about our culture tells us what and how we feel, but it does not tell why we feel that way. We have a culture in our district where staff do not feel safe sharing concerns for fear of jeopardizing their employment. I am not here, standing before you, solely for budgetary savings; I have asked too many questions and advocated for too many things for our people and our programs this year. I have tried to be too innovative to solve our problems and tried to cultivate growth at a faster pace than my supervisors want to deal with. We have culture work to do; our PSD community must be dedicated to the work of consistently modeling positive behaviors to build trust among each other if we truly want to say a value of ours is to put students first. Students do not get prioritized when the adults have a lack of consistency in our behavior and our decisions are not shared but directed from the top down without seeking to gather and understand information from the end user. I was made aware of the sale of the pool at the same time as our entire Pullman Community. I asked for a seat at the table so I could learn how an agreement such as the interlocal agreement is negotiated, but I was denied that opportunity. When I asked to see/review drafts of the proposed agreements this was also denied. I am not sure why I was forced into the title of District Athletic Director if I was not going to be given a seat at the decision making table.

Question number 3 is “What do we do?” For me the answer to this is simple; I seek to uphold high standards of character and sportsmanship, be diligent in my work ethic and to serve and value those around me. This looks like hiring quality coaches and advisors, working hard to earn the respect of other ADs so I can advocate for our teams’ place in the GSL, gathering game management staff to elevate the competitive environment, setting up the gym/field/pool so the coaches don’t have to, scheduling and caring for officials, entering bus requests and adjusting as needed when we don’t have drivers, managing the facility schedule for our school events and our community groups who are taxpayers and who like to enjoy our spaces, partnering with programs that support our school financially, supporting coaches/advisors in navigating the finance processes, ensuring title IX is followed and the daily list of tasks goes on. One of my favorite stories that validates the need of my AD position is when Garren Shannon was performing a public records request for an incident and he called me one Saturday to tell me that he had no idea how much work goes into organizing our athletic events for our students; that he would never again show up to an event and not be grateful for the work it took to pull it off. Through the horrible situation of Garren having to read all of my emails, I felt seen by him. I do the things in the dark that many of you know nothing about so that our students, club members, coaches, advisors and families can have experiences that the district likes to celebrate but not support. Unfortunately, all of those things will soon be found out when the Assistant Principal is yet again put in a position where they cannot possibly fulfill the duties required to provide such positive experiences.

Question 4 “How will we know when we have succeeded?” I know I am successful in living out the culture we are working to cultivate when the conversation and focus is not about me; it’s about the students and our wonderful team we have built over the last four years. When the end product is a community that people want to be a part of, they feel safe to dare and take risks and feel supported when we experience failures. Where we dream up new traditions for our community to experience on our campus like Hound Mania. Where people are smiling and coming together; challenging each other to reach for what is best. The two Scholastic Cup Championships we have earned, second place finish one year and now in fourth place this year are indicators of positive culture, but they are not the end game. The trophy case can be nice to look at but growing students of character and our team being committed to create a positive community is the true end goal.

Question 5 is “What’s most important right now?” I am not naive. I understand we have a budget situation that we must work hard to find solutions to. I understand the district will save money by eliminating my position. However, I would say that you have heard from many community members that they believe the cost of this decision far outweighs the savings. Your decision communicates what your values are, and this does not align with your stated value of putting students first. There is still discretionary spending going on in our district. If we are losing people from our staff, each dollar should be accounted for and our district should be stewarding our money better. The district office recently purchased a new sign and logo for their awning. After being told of my non-renewal I asked if I was still going to the AD conference, and it was shared that I should go. I should have been told “no” and to stay to save that money; I’d rather have a job than go to a conference and wish that others that have attended conferences this year would have felt the same. PHS cut an approximate $52,000 from our Athletics and Activities budget this year. LMS had a list of about $22,000 they were supposed to cut and I would submit to you that they have not been required to follow through with these cuts. Amazing individuals volunteered to coach 6th grade intramurals, but they still incurred the cost of officials. LMS was supposed to cut 6th grade track, and when I asked about this not being done as the District Athletic Director, it was aggressively shared with me by our Superintendent that 6th grade track would be happening, and that he would pay for it out of his own salary if needed. PHS has done the hard things of losing Cheer, C team girls and boys basketball teams, assistant football coach, assistant cross country coach, assistant track coach, Science Olympiad advisor, art advisor, HUDL software, as well as fundraised for a Drama coach advisor and knowledge bowl travel. When I questioned why LMS is allowed to have 18 paid club advisors and PHS had 13, I was not given valid information, just that it is that way. Our tenured coaches make about $1000 less per season than many other coaches in the GSL. Our coaches make about $3.57 per hour if they make it to the post season with your current board policy of capping them at $125 per week. Don’t we want our coaches to succeed with their teams? This is not a new problem, we had the same practices before we had a budget problem. This is a values problem in not caring for those that care for our students. It has been shared with me that everyone believes the high school gets everything. Perception is not reality in this case. The high school just looks like it has an elevated experience because graduation is at stake, so we take our responsibility of stewarding the student experience very seriously. We do a good job of masking the lack of support and gratitude ultimately experienced from those highest in our organization. I waited for 18 months for the GESA contract to be negotiated and approved which is now generating passive income. I raised $36,000 from P1FCU to pay for a paint robot for our maintenance team to save money on paint and time as they continue to experience reduction in their force. I raised $2500 from STCU. I installed NFHS cameras which comes with a revenue stream to us per subscription. We partnered with our community to raise $26,000 for a new pole vault mat when the initial suggestion from the district was to send our pole vault athletes to Colfax for the year. Maile Sandburg already broke the school record this year, sure glad we didn’t have to send our athletes to Colfax to practice. I partnered with GoFan to increase the DECA student store income. I am an asset, not a liability if you could embrace my passion, partner with me and not interpret my dedication to a job well done as a threat. I am willing to do the work to solve problems; I would have welcomed more individuals who have more authority to join me in that mission. It seems as though we like to talk about what a terrible financial state the district is in, but there has been limited commitment to innovation to solve the problem. When I have worked to be creative, I have experienced resistance instead of encouragement and support. When they say money is the root of all evil, this has truly been the case to my struggles and frustrations this year as there were constant roadblocks put in my way when trying to creatively seek solutions. If we want our enrollment to increase, elevating your Athletics & Activities programs and having your staff feel valued to be walking advertisements would be the wise way to make that happen; these programs draw people to the area. This seems to be what is most important right now for our district to figure out.

Question 6 is “Who must do what?” This will be important for you to figure out as you remove me from this position. A wise man once said, “a brilliant plan that belongs to no one, doesn’t go anywhere.” The brilliant plan in our situation seems to be our Pullman Promise, and we are not owning it any longer as there have been too many inconsistent behaviors demonstrated by our leadership. An attitude of listening to respond instead of listening to understand has been demonstrated, and now people are disheartened or in fear of speaking up. Many of our staff and community members are shaken by your lack of value shown towards my contributions to this school district in this decision. If our superintendent really wanted me to stay in the district and accept the transfer to a Special Education Teacher position he has forced me in to, and you have the power to approve or deny, he would have acknowledged the amazing success we have experienced at PHS over the last 4 years and wish me well in my next role. I believe we are created to seek and love justice, and justice is not being served in these decisions. It has been long enough that some have enjoyed their paycheck without doing honest work. Someone I once admired would say that the best way to get rid of good employees is to tolerate bad ones. A statement shared at my conference which seemed to be filled with wisdom is that you should never tear something down unless you know what you are going to replace it with; you now have the difficult task to determine who will do what to continue to provide positive opportunities for our students.

You are considering approving my transfer to the position of a special education teacher tonight. While I have much respect for our district special education teachers and the work they do, I believe the AD role is the position where I can best serve our students and community. I believe I have faithfully served our district in my current role as the Pullman High School Athletics and Activities Director. If the transfer was overturned, I would joyfully remain in the AD role and continue to be dedicated to the mission, and partner with our new principal to grow what mission he has in mind, for PHS to move forward. I would also welcome the opportunity to continue to work with our district leadership so we can work through solving our problem of not valuing our people and commit to making progress towards seeking resolution together; bitterness for past hurts only negatively impacts me, and I want to be on the same team working towards the same goals. Desiring progress does not have to put us in conflict, but we can commit to sitting on the same side of the table; be dedicated to innovation to solve our budget problems, and celebrate our successes for our students and greater Pullman community.

Through 17 years of marriage, miscarriage, loss of both of my parents to cancer- Brandon and I have learned that the Lord always provides and has good in store for those who love Him. Whatever your decision, I am not fearful for He does not give His children a spirit of fear. This job is not about me but the people I have been able to serve. I feel peace in knowing I have left it better than I found it. The attention I have received from this decision has been very uncomfortable for me this last week. I have often joked that I love this job because I get to play Wizard of Oz behind the curtain by just doing the work for the students and people of our community. You have a decision to make, and I realize you are weighing the finances and also the precedent you may set. Ultimately, you have to decide: Why do you exist? How must you behave? What do you do? How will you know when you have succeeded? What’s most important right now? And Who must do what? I am hopeful you can answer these questions with integrity and courage.

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to serve our community over the last 18 years. Whether this door closes right now or remains open, I firmly believe this will not be my last journey in Athletic Administration. My eyes have been open to the purpose I have experienced in this role, and I am in love. If this is indeed the end of this season of my life with PSD, I would welcome an informal exit meeting if you have further questions about my experience as a district employee. I want change and healing for our district so that we can feel confident to continue to send our children to Pullman Public Schools.

Thank you for your time, and Go Hounds!