Former Meadowdale Elementary principal gets new contract
Published 6:30 am Saturday, August 22, 2026
LYNNWOOD — Citing state law, the Edmonds school board on Tuesday voted to keep former Meadowdale Elementary School principal Dan Davis on the payroll through at least June 2027, despite community pressure to fire him and other administrators for their handling of a former special education teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct.
In August 2025, a girl reported to police that she had been raped two years earlier by her former special education teacher, David Sibley. A review of investigative documents and internal school emails by The Daily Herald and InvestigateWest revealed last month that administrators had received numerous complaints about Sibley’s inappropriate behavior toward children since 2022 and that the concerns were repeatedly dismissed.
Some of those complaints were made directly to Davis, Superintendent Rebecca Miner and other school and district administrators, none of whom reported the concerns at the time to law enforcement or notified parents of potential victims. State law requires school districts to immediately notify a student’s parent or guardian of allegations that the child “is a victim, target or recipient of physical or sexual abuse, sexual misconduct or assault” by a school employee.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, multiple community members demanded during public comment that Miner be put on leave and that Davis be permanently removed for failing to fulfil their duties as mandatory reporters.
After the public comment concluded, Board President Nancy Katims noted the board does not typically comment on specific personnel cases.
“However, it is important for everyone to know that there are state laws which govern a district’s ability to transfer a school principal to a subordinate position or terminate their employment if they have had three years of experience as a principal,” Katims said.
Katims then referenced two Washington statutes stating that, after three years, the streamlined procedure to demote a principal is no longer applicable. To remove a principal from their position, the superintendent would need to determine there is “probable cause” and the principal would have the right to request a formal hearing against a possible nonrenewal of contract.
The statute itself doesn’t define “probable cause,” requiring the superintendent to make the determination and to specify the reason(s) in writing.
The board then approved the meeting’s consent agenda, which included Davis’s new Principal on Special Assignment contract.
Board members Thom Garrard, Hawk Cramer and Katims were present and all voted to approve the consent agenda. Board member Carin Chase was present via Zoom but unable to participate due to technology issues, and board member Keith Smith was absent.
During public comment, parents highlighted the requests of a circulating online petition with over 300 signatures calling for the district to complete an independent third-party investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct to identify specific and systemic failures within the school’s response to the abuse claims it received over multiple years.
An investigation by Crystal Investigations, an independent law firm that conducts workplace and school investigations, has completed its report, district officials previously said. It has yet to be released to the public.
“The news reports that a staff member at Meadowdale was allegedly allowed to continue to sexually assault special education students for multiple years, even after credible eyewitnesses made several reports about the abuse, is unacceptable,” said Silvia Ferreira, a parent and vice president of the Edmonds Special Education Parent Teacher Student Association.
“It is made worse by the fact that these reports of abuse made it all the way to the top of our leadership structure, but were still not acted upon in a way that would protect students,” she added.
Davis stepped down as Meadowdale’s principal in April 2025, citing media attention and challenges to his professional reputation. He then transferred into a “Principal on Special Assignment” role, with the district putting him in charge if its capital projects department and school band configurations. His new contract for the role was one of many staff contracts listed on the board’s consent agenda.
Following The Herald and InvestigateWest’s reporting in July, Seattle’s branch of PCVA Law, a national personal injury firm, announced it was investigating the Edmonds School District and its response to sexual abuse reports made against Sibley.
“Institutions that receive repeated warnings about an employee’s behavior around children carry a legal obligation to act on those warnings,” the firm’s press release stated. “When a school district fails to remove an employee from contact with students, fails to interview the children involved, or fails to notify families as required by law, that failure can itself become a basis for legal accountability separate from the conduct of the employee.”
People whose children attended Meadowdale between 2022 and 2025, or whose families have information about how the Edmonds School District responded to concerns about staff conduct, can reach out to the firm.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com
Eliza also uses the encrypted messaging platform, Signal: @elizaaronson.40
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Investigative Reporting Fund.
