Sonoma Valley Unified School District associate superintendent to resign

Bruce Abbott will leave in August after 4½ years of service.|

Bruce Abbott will leave in August after 4½ years of service

Bruce Abbott announced today that he will resign from his position as associate superintendent for business services for Sonoma Valley Unified School District, effective Aug. 31.

He began assisting the school district part-time with its financials in November 2017 and officially was hired for his full-time position in January 2018.

“I never planned to be at SVUSD for many years,” he said. “My initial role was to stabilize the financial situation, and I expected that effort to take a couple of years. But soon after I was hired, the whole district office team turned over. So I decided to stick around until the leadership team settled. That has taken longer than expected. Now, with a very experienced superintendent [Dr. Adrian Palazuelos] in place, I am seeing the district office team gelling and feel that I can move on.”

Regarding the recent string of turnovers among district administrators, Abbott said, “Stories about great organizations always seem to focus on the last chapter. Isn’t it great when things are great? It takes many years to achieve those levels and it is always a bumpy road getting there. The resources available and the capacity of this district are significant, but there are changing demographics.

“Any principal looking for an exciting challenge should be excited to be here. I was told by a mentor superintendent I knew that the job of a principal is the hardest in education. I cannot speak to the individual decisions staff make about their careers. Finding and keeping good staff is harder than ever. We need strong support systems in place for all our staff. With the support needed from the community and our board, this can be a great district.”

He lauded the current district office team serving under Palazuelos. He noted that Associate Superintendent Elizabeth Kaufman has been with the district for four years; Andrew Ryan has served for 17 years, including three as director of human resources; Jillian Beal has worked there for seven years, including one as director of educational services; Josh Braff is now in his second year as chief business official; Dawn Mawhinney, a national Blue Ribbon principal, is serving in her first year as director of educational services; and Maureen Vanderpool is in her first year as director of special education.

Abbott listed several things that the district has accomplished during the past few years, such as putting the district of sound financial footing, which has been sustained for four years; significantly improving financial reporting and transparency; restructuring the salary schedule to make the district more attractive; completing most of the major bonds facilities projects; moving all the elementary students to one-to-one technology; and in collaboration with teachers, creating a support system ensuring that technology is used in the district to support learning.

After he leaves the district, Abbott intends to stay actively involved in his main professional interests: technology, finance, economics and education, which was his third career field.

“I’m not sure what form of work [I’ll be involved with] at this time,” he said. “I also plan to get more involved with the community.”

Reach the reporter, Dan Johnson, at daniel.johnson@sonomanews.com.

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