After a sudden resignation, Alaska’s second largest school district finds itself in need of a superintendent for the second time in under a year. On Monday, the Mat-Su Borough School District announced the school board would hold an emergency special meeting with less than four hours’ notice. The agenda for that meeting included naming an interim superintendent. A resolution justifying the meeting’s emergency status cites the “impending immediate resignation” of current Superintendent of Schools Gene Stone.
After passing the resolution, and more than ninety minutes of executive session, the school board reconvened its public meeting and voted unanimously to accept the resignation of Gene Stone, effective April 3rd. Stone was named as superintendent last May after the departure of Dr. Deena Bishop for the Anchorage School District.
Superintendent Stone did not speak publicly at the meeting. Mat-Su School Board President Dr. Donna Dearman says Stone tendered his resignation for personal reasons. She did not elaborate, and asked that the privacy of Stone and his family be respected.
“Mr. Stone asked the board to accept his resignation,” Dearman said. “He was not asked by the board to resign. I want that out there, and I want to make that clear.”
Dr. Monica Goyette, current Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, will take over as interim Superintendent of Schools for the Mat-Su. Goyette has an 18-year history with the district.
This story contained contributions from Casey Grove with Alaska Public Media.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here.
