Durango High School principal resigns
Lashinksy: School might benefit from different type of leadership
By Emery Cowan
Durango
School District 9-R is beginning the search for a new head of Durango
High School after current principal Diane Lashinsky resigned earlier
this week.
The 9-R Board of Education approved Lashinksy’s resignation late Tuesday night.
In
a conversation with interim superintendent Bill Esterbrook, Lashinsky
said she realized a different type of leadership might be beneficial to
DHS considering the current needs and goals of the school, Esterbrook
said.
The district declined to
provide a copy of the letter of resignation Lashinsky submitted to the
district citing an exemption to the open-records law for personnel
files.
Thomas Kelley, a Denver
media lawyer who represents The DurangoHerald, disagreed with the
district’s decision, saying resignation letters are subject to the
state’s Open Records Act, and case law supports that position.
Esterbrook declined to say whether he was surprised by Lashinksy’s announcement to leave the district.
“She
has worked very hard and established a lot of good things,” he said.
“She has the school on the brink of something really special.”
The
district is committed to continuing the school’s work on small learning
communities, he said. The school-within-a-school model groups ninth-
and 10th-graders into different pods that share a common set of teachers
in core subject areas. The school is preparing to introduce a new
version of the small learning communities this fall.
Lashinsky
was hired at the high school in 2007 and led the school’s transition to
the small learning communities, which started in 2008.
“When
I came to Durango High School, I was challenged to lead the school to
make the change from a comprehensive high school to personalized
learning environments,” Lashinsky wrote in an email to the Herald. “This
is what I’m good at, and I feel successful in our accomplishments.”
Enrollment
at DHS has been declining for much of Lashinsky’s tenure at the high
school. Since 2008, it has fallen by about 400 students. District
administrators attribute part of the loss to the opening of Animas High
School, a public charter, in 2009. Animas has an enrollment of about 180
students.
A survey given last year
to all district educators provided insight into teachers’ working
environment at the high school and elsewhere. Survey results showed that
only 36 percent of DHS teachers agreed that faculty and leadership have
a shared vision, the second-lowest among the district’s schools.
Teachers’
responses to this statement at DHS and elsewhere in the district “is
the most alarming problem highlighted by this survey,” Elizabeth
Collins, president of the district’s teachers union, wrote in her report
of the data.
Daniel Snowberger,
who is in contract negotiations to become the district’s next
superintendent, will visit Durango on Friday to meet with the high
school’s staff and to discuss finding a replacement for Lashinsky.
Similar
to recent principal searches at Sunnyside and Park elementary schools, a
committee of parents and school staff will serve in an advisory role
while reviewing DHS principal candidates.
Lashinksy’s
resignation will be effective June 26. She wrote in an email that she
will complete her doctorate this summer at the University of Washington
and has no other specific career plans.
