Soap Lake SD superintendent resigns

SOAP LAKE - In a Statement from the Soap Lake School Board on March 11, the board announced that it has accepted Soap Lake School District Superintendent Sunshine Pray’s immediate resignation.

Pray’s resignation comes amongst three other resignations in the past month and an investigation into the district.

In the Feb. 28 Soap Lake School Board meeting agenda, three school district staff members are listed as having submitted their resignations. They include paraeducator Morgan Evenstad, custodian Jessika Wyman and middle school science teacher Charles Hansen.

In Wyman’s resignation letter, it states: “After careful consideration, I have made the decision to resign due to a hostile work environment. I had multiple encounters with a person that harassed myself with no actions taken to remediate the problem. It was brought to the attention of the superintendent that no actions were taken from them.”

Both Evenstad and Hansen do not list why they chose to resign but thanked the board for the opportunity to serve the Soap Lake School District.

Wyman’s last day was noted to be Feb. 4, Evenstad’s Feb. 15 and Hansen’s to be effective at the end of this school year.

Soap Lake School Board President Curt Dotson confirmed that Clear Risk Solutions based out of Ephrata is conducting the investigation into the district. Dotson said the investigation is still in progress but he expects results within a week or two although he was not given any specific date it would be completed by.

Soap Lake Police Chief Ryan Cox said there are no active criminal investigations relating to the school district being conducted by SLPD at this time.

The Soap Lake School Board held another special meeting on March 14 to determine which board member will be the acting superintendent until a replacement can be hired. Results of the meeting were not available by press time.