Sequim Parents Plead to Save Choir Amid Looming Budget Cuts

If you want to understand the staggering disconnect between the Sequim School District’s administration and the reality facing its community, look no further than Monday night’s school board meeting.

The June 1 gathering provided a vivid demonstration of the district’s preferred operational setting: a highly produced, glossy presentation designed to project unity, while seemingly sidestepping a documented history of institutional blind spots and ongoing systemic strain.

The evening opened with a multimedia presentation honoring this year’s retiring staff.

District leadership heaped glowing praise upon outgoing employees, offering a deeply emotional tribute to the educators and staff leaving the district.

But for Sequim parents familiar with the district’s history of shielding controversial figures, one specific tribute stood out as a jarring display of administrative optics.

A Controversial Tribute

During the pre-recorded video, the district chose to publicly eulogize the retirement of high school math teacher and cross-country coach Paul Brinkmann.

As we extensively reported in April and May, Brinkmann’s past carries publicly documented baggage.

According to public court records, in 2012, while teaching in the neighboring Port Angeles School District, Brinkmann was arrested and faced a slew of felony charges, including first-degree child molestation and multiple counts of rape of a child.

Those charges were dismissed in 2013. However, as court records indicate, the dismissal was not due to exculpatory evidence, but because the alleged victim declined to testify at trial—a tragically common outcome in severe abuse cases.

While Brinkmann was never convicted, the Sequim School District’s subsequent decision to hire him has remained a point of intense scrutiny for community members familiar with the district’s historical failures in vetting staff.

Yet, on Monday night, the district’s official presentation completely glossed over the controversy that has followed his tenure.

The district’s tribute video lauded Brinkmann on the public record, explicitly stating: “Paul is an incredibly enthusiastic teacher who inspires students each and every day.”

The tribute went further, brazenly praising his access to students outside the classroom: “Paul is also an exceptional coach who has made students’ lives better because of the role he’s played throughout the years.”

For a district whose risk pool has paid out millions in taxpayer-funded settlements to resolve civil rights violations and administrative retaliation, offering a hero’s send-off to a figure with this specific background demonstrates a breathtaking lack of self-awareness.

Squeezing the Arts

The hypocrisy of the district’s priorities was immediately laid bare during the public comment period.

While the administration spent time celebrating its outgoing staff, local parents were forced to step to the podium and beg the board not to gut the arts.

Carrie Hoffman, the mother of a Sequim High School freshman, pleaded for the survival of the choir program and fiercely advocated for its director, Florin Baros.

Amid reports of looming budget cuts, Hoffman pointed out a glaring double standard in Sequim’s funding model: sports programs are routinely rewarded for high performance, while the arts are perpetually on the chopping block.

She noted that Baros continually takes students to state and national competitions, pointing to a recent trip to Disneyland where the choir placed second and third, as well as superior ratings for the vocal performance teams.

“I implore you guys to really think about where you’re putting your funding because the arts program is really important,” Hoffman told the board, noting that Baros spends countless hours working with students outside of regular school hours.

She then delivered a stark ultimatum on behalf of her daughter: “If there is no choir program at Sequim School District, I will not be enrolled.”

Later in the meeting, Superintendent Regan Nickels casually confirmed the financial anxiety, noting that the administration is still scrambling to close a final $200,000 budget gap before the proposed budget is presented on June 15.

For taxpayers, this budget squeeze is infuriating.

This is a district that found the funds to pay out a staggering $1.5 million to settle a retaliation lawsuit generated by its own executives, yet frontline programs that actively enrich students’ lives are left begging for scraps.

A System Pushed to the Brink

The departmental reports delivered later in the meeting further underscored a district leaning heavily on overworked frontline staff to hold its crumbling infrastructure together.

During the annual health services report, retiring district nurse Sonja Bittner revealed the staggering medical load placed on her team.

With over 4,500 office visits and 28 highly invasive nursing services performed daily across the district, Sequim’s medical staff is stretched dangerously thin.

Bittner pointed out that because the district consolidated preschool and K-2 students—including the youngest, most medically fragile children—onto the Greywolf Elementary campus, the district is now categorized by the OESD as a “high acuity” school.

Bittner bluntly informed the board that the district is currently operating at a deficit of nearly 19 registered nursing hours a week, forcing health room assistants and paraeducators to shoulder the immense liability of one-on-one medical care.

This strain is mirrored in the Special Education department.

Director Steven Dahl informed the board Monday that the district officially hit 500 students with Individualized Education Programs—meaning a staggering 20% of the entire Sequim student body now requires special education services.

And in the English Language Learning department, Director Andrea Dietzman highlighted the quiet battles educators fight just to secure basic access for students.

She noted that the district saw a massive influx of newcomers this year—students arriving with little to no English proficiency.

It took an internal push mid-year just to secure a handful of basic translation tablets so these students wouldn’t be left completely stranded in their classrooms.

Despite the lack of institutional resources, Dietzman proudly reported that all of her exiting students scored a 3 on the English Language Arts state assessment—a phenomenal achievement that is a direct testament to the grit of the teaching staff, not the administration.

Behind Closed Doors

How did the board conclude this meeting of financial anxiety and frontline strain?

By retreating into the shadows.

Following the approval of the 2026-2027 board calendar, the directors immediately recessed into 45 minutes of closed-door executive sessions to “review the performance of a public employee.”

While executive sessions are a standard, legal procedure for school boards handling personnel matters, it was a fitting end to the evening.