Longtime Lagunitas School District trustees to exit
With more than 70 years of service between them, Richard Sloan and Denise Bohman will end an era on the Lagunitas School District when they depart next month.
Sloan, 89, first elected in 1971, leaves after 53 years, with the exception of one four-year term in the 1980s when he ran unsuccessfully for Tamalpais Union High School District board. Bohman, 63, first elected in 1999, departs after 25 years.
“Richard has been one of the top three mentors of my entire professional life,” said Dave Cort, a staff member at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. “And Denise, who I’ve known since the 1990s, has really done a lot of incredible work around the Lagunitas district facilities.”
Laura Shain, who retired in June as school principal and district superintendent after 13 years, said, “I look back so fondly to my years at Lagunitas with both of them on the school board. They are both remarkable in their consistent engagement over many years and their feet-on-the-ground approach to leadership.”
John Carroll, Marin superintendent of schools, worked with both Bohman and Sloan for many years when he was the Lagunitas superintendent.
“Both have been extraordinary public servants who kept coming back year after year,” Carroll said. “They stayed through good times and through hard times in order to make sure students in our school had the best possible education.”
Former Marin superintendent of schools Mary Jane Burke, who knew both Bohman and Sloan for decades, agreed that both trustees always focused on what was best for students.
“We owe them, along with all the other trustees throughout Marin County, our heartfelt thanks, admiration and deep appreciation for what they do for our community,” Burke said.
Sloan, who lives in Woodacre, said his greatest contribution was to push for allowing differing school options to share the same campus. The elementary-level Open Campus and Montessori schools operated independently for years until they were merged last spring after a tumultuous upheaval and restructuring.
Sloan cast the lone “no” vote on the merger.
“I believe I was instrumental in 1971 and 1972 in opening up the school to parents with different ideas, and encouraging them to come forward and tell the board what they wanted,” he said. “What we discovered was that all parents didn’t agree on what education was or how it should be delivered. What we provided was an opportunity for different styles of education to co-exist in one little community.”
He also used his construction skills to rebuild both playgrounds on the two-tiered campus. He also helped build a bridge between the upper and lower campuses, did concrete work on a new school gym, installed a drainage system at the school garden and helped construct the community center.
Sloan said he plans to stay on the Marin County Committee for School District Reorganization, a countywide group that decides on territorial issues among school districts.
Bohman, a Forest Knolls resident, in addition to helping with facilities emergencies from burst pipes to building repairs, also was head of the district’s parent fundraising foundation, now called LEAP, and ran the school’s annual book fair for 16 years.
“I hope to be remembered as a steady leader, with my eyes always on the budget, and someone who always put children first,” Bohman said in an email. “Some of my favorite memories are the times when the board, administration, parents and staff collaborated to make wonderful things happen.”
She plans to continue to work in affordable housing with Two Valleys Community Land Trust and to “spend more time with family.”
A new district administration, headed up by superintendent Kathleen Graham and school principal Jenelle Ferhart, took office at the beginning of the current school year.
On the board of trustees, Celina De Leon and Breeze Kinsey ran unopposed on Nov. 5 to fill the two soon-to-be vacant seats. They will be sworn in in December, joining trustees Aaron Michelson, Steve Rebscher and James Sanders.