While Arcadia School District officials and supporters wage campaigns on several fronts to cover millions of dollars in lost state funding, administrators have also been managing a recent flurry of high-level management departures and realignments.
Robert Leri, Deputy Superintendent, Educational Services and Programs
The changes were sparked by the resignation the first week of January — unexpected by most District staff — of Deputy Superintendent Robert Leri effective March 1, and the sudden retirement of Food Services Director Debra Amos on Jan. 10, effective immediately. Leri is leaving to become Superintendent/Chief Learning Officer of the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District.
Last week it was announced that popular Arcadia High School principal David Vannasdall would take on the additional role of Deputy Superintendent March 1 and leave his post as principal at the end of this school year to become Deputy Superintendent. On March 1 the District will begin a search for a new AHS principal, according to a memo e-mailed to all District employees last week from Superintendent Dr. Joel Shawn.
Debra Amos, former Director of Food Services
And Camino Grove Elementary School principal Brook Reynolds is being assigned this week as the interim Director of Food Services, Operations, and Transportation. Danae Popovich, Teacher on Special Assignment, will immediately take Reynolds’ place at Camino Grove as interim principal.
The resignation of Amos exacerbated the situation involving an unfilled vacancy for the past year that was created with the unplanned departure of Paul Letson as Director of Facilities, Operations, Transportation, and Maintenance. Since then, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Christina Aragon has been supervising all those departments on top of her regular job.
While acknowledging that all of the above “represents a great deal of change,” Shawn said the District is fortunate to have the talent among current staff to fill the positions.
All this comes as the District is trying to cover a projected $7 million annual budget deficit by preparing a mail-in election on Feb. 13 for a five-year parcel tax of $228 per-year on each taxed parcel of land for property owners that would raise about $3.4 million per year; while the Arcadia Educational Foundation just mailed out its annual solicitation last week asking every adult resident to donate at least $365 and every parent to donate $500 for every student they have in schools; and against the backdrop of Governor Brown threatening to cut another $4.8 billion from the already depleted education funding if voters don’t approve his proposed tax this summer. (School parcel tax web site here.)
Deputy Superintendent Leri, an outdoor enthusiast, said in an e-mail to the District that he will assume his new role in Tahoe Truckee April 2 as an opportunity to return to Central California where he grew up in the Modesto/Stockton area and lived in Mariposa County before coming to Arcadia in 1996. “Living in a school district with at least five major ski resorts is exciting,” he said, but he noted that he is committed to helping pass the parcel tax and “being an active part of this district until my last day.”
— By Scott Hettrick