Clarke Community School Board approved the resignation of Tom Roff, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, during a school board meeting Monday, June 23.
Roff had only been in the school district for one year.
Letter
This is a section of Roff’s resignation letter:
“I am submitting this as my official resignation as curriculum director for Clarke Community Schools. It has been an honor to work with such an amazing group of people, students and community members.
This was not an easy decision to make as I have grown very fond of the people I work with on a day to day basis, but I have decided to return to my hometown of Pleasantville to be their elementary principal and work with many longtime friends.
While my time here was extremely enjoyable, I missed working with kids tremendously. I hope you will all understand my reasons - the pull of getting back to being with kids and returning to my hometown was just strong enough to lure me away from this great school.”
Extension problems
Board member Steve O’Tool said he wanted to publicly comment on the situation.
“We didn’t receive this until June 23. Contracts are up June 30, and I hear he had two extensions for not signing his contract, but what I’m thinking is why so late? You know, that doesn’t give us much time to replace him,” O’Tool said. “I’m wondering whether this extension thing should be revisited at some point. Why would you need an extension? If you’re looking for a job, quit the one you have and go find one.”
Gerard Linskens, school board president, said he agreed with the situation.
“It’s a very late notice, unfortunately. Very late,” Linskens said.
A comment was made most school districts allow one extension (two weeks), but some districts don’t allow extensions at all.
Clarke Elementary Principal Jill Kiger said she recalled administrative contracts, such as Roff’s, had to be in by the middle of June, whereas those from teaching staff are typically earlier.
“I still think we need to look at those and be careful with our extensions … because that puts us in a bind for replacement,” O’Tool said.
Clarke Superintendent Steve Seid said he had heard a candidate for the high school principal position was interested in the curriculum director position. The candidate had experience at the administrative level.
“Tom really dug in and did a really good job,” O’Tool said. “I don’t want to just replace him with (anybody). Anyways, that was just my comment on that.”