Estrop's Resignation Officially Accepted

[Dan Slife]

The Lakewood Observer captures the deeper context not found in the reports of other regional, faux-local publications

Estrop's Resignation Officially Accepted
by Thealexa Becker

On Sunday, July 21, the Lakewood School Board officially accepted the resignation of Dr. David Estrop as superintendent of the Lakewood City Schools.

Estrop, who turned in a copy of his resignation on March 12 of last year, is currently in the running for the State Superintendent position. The previous State Superintendent, Susan T. Zelman, resigned on May 28 of this year to actively pursue a position as the Dean of Education at the University of Oregon.

While his resignation does not take effect until August of next year, the School Board made the official acceptance in order to begin the search for a replacement.

“The idea was that we needed to get started on a superintendent search,â€￾ said Linda Beebe, a member of the School Board. “We have to be able to start looking for a new superintendent.â€￾

The School Board voted in favor of accepting Estrop’s resignation. All members were present with the exception of Ed Favre who could not get away from work. He concurred with their decision to accept the year old document.

However, he had voted against Estrop’s three year contract renewal because his resignation letter was turned in beforehand.

“I was not particularly comfortable with the situation,â€￾ said Favre of his vote against renewing Estrop’s contract. He added that he did agree with the Board completely in accepting the resignation. “The district is moving forward and there in much planning to be done.â€￾

Estrop submitted his resignation letter on March 12, 2007, but other than to say that now was the right time to act, the members of the Board were unable to give specific answers as to why it took a year to approve it. Charles Geiger, the School Board President was only able to say that that they were leaving Estrop options to do his own searching process.

But in February of this year, Estrop announced that he would be leaving the School District. Board Member Matt Markling said that he was unable to explain why that announcement was made, and that it was done so independently of the School Board. He said the first time that he heard about it was on the Observation Deck at the Lakewood Observer website.

Estrop said to his administrative staff on February 29, 2008: “Given events that have developed in the district over the last two to three months, my wife Virginia and I have decided it is no longer in our interest for me to remain in the Lakewood schools.â€￾

While he would not elaborate on these “eventsâ€￾, the only significant change was the election to the School Board of Markling. Yet, despite these “recent eventsâ€￾, Estrop’s resignation was on file for almost a year.

Now, the School Board will begin the search for a replacement for Estrop. In order to garner a pool of candidates for the position, the School Board must put out adds in the December issues of all the professional magazines outlining what they are looking for in a candidate. This means that the criteria for a new superintendent will be solidified no later than November to meet this deadline.

“It will be a step by step process,â€￾ said Beebe about selecting Estrop’s replacement. “We must know what we are looking for and we must begin having discussions.â€￾

Before the actual search process can begin, the Board will have to meet and decide exactly how they wish to proceed. By September, they will announce their plan for hiring a new head of the School District.

“The Board does want to begin the process of moving forward with district planning,â€￾ said Geiger. “This is part of a process that the Board goes through from time to time. It’s nothing really unusual.â€￾

“It has always been our intent to work with the community,â€￾ Geiger continued, adding that there are other big issues confronting the School Board this year, such as various financial challenges and Phase 3 of Lakewood High School’s reconstruction.