ESD union members voted “no confidence” in former superintendent before resignation

Published 12:30 pm Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Just prior to his resignation, the Enumclaw School District staff voted “no confidence” in former Superintendent Dr. Shaun Carey’s leadership.

This information was given to the Courier-Herald by a person highly knowledgeable of Enumclaw Education Association discussions and the resulting vote; this person asked to remain anonymous to speak about staff concerns that were not shared officially by the EEA.

The EEA is a part of the Washington Education Association teachers union, but does not represent all staff.

The EEA and the school district confirmed the vote happened in September 2025; Carey resigned suddenly on Jan. 12 of this year.

According to a letter sent by the EEA to the district, nearly 77% of its members that participated in the digital poll voted “no confidence” in Carey.

The EEA confirmed 179 of 239 members participated in the vote.

This could be the first time the union held a “no confidence” vote, let alone have one pass, as the EEA said it is unaware of any past instances.

The vote followed two routine climate surveys the EEA gave to its members, one in 2022 and another in 2024.

According to the union, members that participated in the 2022 survey ranked Carey’s ability to demonstrate “effective leadership” lower than other comparative measures across the district, including being receptive to staff concerns, communicating openly and effectively, making decisions with input from stakeholders, and valuing union members as professional educators.

And “[w]hen the survey was given again in 2024, the Superintendent results showed a further decline in all five areas,” the EEA letter reads.

Both the survey results were relayed to the superintendent and “[t]he results of the recent Vote of No Confidence underscore that these areas of concern have still not been addressed by Superintendent Dr. Shaun Carey”; the district did not receive any records or copy of the survey results.

Despite the vote, the EEA stated that it was unaware if the “no confidence” vote impacted Carey’s decision to leave.

The ESD board was formally made aware of the “no confidence” vote via a letter from the EEA on Nov. 3, 2025.

“The Board intends to engage in broader district-wide feedback efforts moving forward,” he added.

Gamblin said that the board is unable to discuss personnel evaluations and related discussions, as they are conducted in executive sessions in line with contract and state law.

“As shared publicly, the Board appreciates Dr. Carey’s service to the district. The Board remains focused on supporting students and staff and conducting a thoughtful and thorough search for the next superintendent,” he continued. “We look forward to the community and staff input for our next superintendent.”

It does appear Carey had been looking to become the superintendent of another district for at least several months before his resignation; he was one of the final three picks to fill the Bremerton School District in Kitsap County District last March and the Northshore School District last May, according to reports, but was ultimately not selected for either position.

Both applications were filed after the EEA surveys, but before the “no confidence” vote.

STAFF COMPLAINTS

According to the person familiar with the survey results and the resulting “no confidence” vote, the vote at least partially came out of contract negotiation frustration; according to the EEA, members voted down a tentative contract agreement in August 2025, but ratified it a month later, around the time the “no confidence” vote was made.

While the superintendent’s role does not include negotiating union contracts, his office does oversee the negotiation process, the person said that negative emotions that stemmed from the contract negotiations likely could have affected the “no confidence” vote.

But “[w]hen we checked in with our members after the August 21 vote, their concerns went beyond pay,” an EEA representative said in an email statement. “Many expressed a lack of faith in the superintendent’s leadership.”

For example, there was a pervasive feeling that Carey wasn’t present around the district, this person said.

“The previous [superintendent] Mike [Nelson], he was amazing, He knew everyone’s names. He came into the school all the time,” they continued. “Shaun was rarely seen in the schools… he [didn’t] show up for things unless they’re family-facing.”

The district confirmed that staff have shared concerns about Carey’s lack of presence in schools.

Carey was hired at ESD in the summer of 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; when school started in the fall, students were fully remote; it transitioned to a hybrid model of half in school, half online and then to fully in-school by May 2021 (though a large chuck of students remained 100% online, if families wished).

How Carey handled the pandemic was not one of the several complaints made by the EEA members.

Other complaints were made about the grounds and increased staffing in the special education department.

“In the special education department, there used to be two people who were like cabinet members… now there’s four people… [and] it didn’t change anything,” the person said.

The district confirmed that four additional non-certified (meaning employees not represented by the EEA) special education staff were hired during the 2023-2024 school year for a total of 83 full-time employees, and an additional eight the next year, but staffing has decreased to 83 this school year.

Certified special education staffing increased from 32.8 full time employees in 2021-2022 to 35 during 2023-2024, but two positions were eliminated in 2024-2025 and have remained at 33 FTEs this year.

“Special education staffing is based on student need and caseloads/enrollment. Last year, after conversations with staff to identify the greatest student needs, the district reallocated existing special education staffing to create a certificated Special Education Tosa position to support student behavior and special education services across our schools,” Director of Communications Jessica McCartney said. “The district has received informal feedback from our schools that this change has led to increased support.”

As for the grounds, this person said that a group of parents decided to “take care” of the grounds at Westwood Elementary by doing basic maintenance the weekend before the school year started, “which is pretty shameful in that the department has grown and it’s [doing] less.”

McCartney said the district recently filled a vacancy in the grounds department, run by Phil Engebretsen, director of facilities, operations, and athletics, “but has not added additional staffing to this department.”