Ballard's New School Board Fires Its Best Teacher to Settle a Score
A freshly elected school board in Ballard drops two veteran teachers — including the superintendent — and a director admits it's because Miss Funk belonged to the wrong faction.
The new board of school directors for the city of Ballard held its first meeting at the school house Monday night with W. W. DeLong, the director, and F. W. Farr, the clerk, elected at the last election, present, and proceeded to make some radical changes in the force.
The board re-elected the following teachers for the ensuing year: Miss Ellen Strandberg, Miss Jessie Marshall, Miss Ellen Armour, Mrs. C. J. Beatty. Considerable surprise was manifested by a large number at the failure of the board to re-elect Miss Anna Funk and Miss Lena Davis. Miss Davis has lived in the vicinity for years and Miss Anna Funk was superintendent of the schools from January 1 to the close of the term. Miss Funk has many friends who promise to make it interesting for the board. George P. Holden is chairman of the board and J. H. Blake, the contestant for a seat in the city council, is the other director. The responsibility for the failure to elect Miss Davis and Miss Funk rests, therefore, upon DeLong and Blake.
Mr. Blake, in an interview, said he thought the board had no intention of engaging either Miss Funk or Miss Davis. He admitted that Miss Funk was the best teacher Ballard schools ever had, but said there was a faction hitherto connected with the schools that the board of directors thought it was for the best interests of the city to drop. Miss Funk was associated with this faction and he therefore thought it best to drop her also. Miss Kelly, one of the old teachers, was still under consideration.
Clerk John Crory's census report showed 677 children of school age against 712 last year, a decrease of 35.
“"He admitted that Miss Funk was the best teacher Ballard schools ever had, but said there was a faction hitherto connected with the schools that the board of directors thought it was for the best interests of the city to drop."”
A new school board arrives, and the first order of business is settling old political scores — even at the cost of losing the best teacher in town. The Ballard schools of 1895 were a small district where factional loyalty outweighed merit, a dynamic that still plays out in school board fights over hiring and curriculum. Ballard was annexed to Seattle in 1907, but its school politics have a familiar ring.
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