Lagunitas School District approves 2-person administration

The Lagunitas School District board has approved a restructuring of the top administration to revert to a two-person model.

The board voted 4-1 at a special meeting Friday in favor of hiring a half-time district superintendent and a full-time principal for Lagunitas School, which has transitional kindergarten through eighth grade.

“Having two people at the top is better,” said board of trustees president Denise Bohman, who voted in favor of the move. “If we lose one — someone quits, becomes ill or something else — there is still someone running the school.”

Trustee Richard Sloan, who cast the sole vote against the proposed administrative structure, could not be reached for comment.

The board is expected to vote on whether to hire the finalists for the two top positions at its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

If appointed, the two finalists would fill the spot to be vacated July 1 by the retirement of Laura Shain after 12 years as school principal.

For the last year and a half, Shain has worked as both principal and superintendent to fill in after former superintendent John Carroll took office as Marin County superintendent of schools in January 2023.

Shain said that while she has intimate knowledge of all the workings of the school and the district and so was able to do both jobs herself for that short period of time, it would be difficult for a new person to step into a combined role.

“The superintendent job here is really so complex,” Shain said Monday in supporting the two-person model.

“There’s facilities, human resources, budget and many other duties,” she said. “The volume of work for two jobs is not sustainable, and not a model that would keep people here on the job.”

Carroll, who was a half-time superintendent at both the Lagunitas district and the Bolinas-Stinson Union School District for nine years, agreed with Shain that it would be less stressful for someone to be either a principal or a half-time superintendent than to do both.

“It makes total sense,” Carroll said Monday of the two-person model. “In smaller districts, the superintendent has to do more employee management, human resources, based on my experience.”

The Bolinas-Stinson Union School District has since hired its own half-time superintendent.