Carlomagno resigns as school chief
The Sonoma Valley Unified School District will meet in a special, closed session on Friday to discuss the sudden resignation of Superintendent Louann Carlomagno.
Carlomagno made the unexpected announcement Tuesday citing friction with the board of trustees.
“Since the school board election last November, I have had to spend much of my time addressing board operations and interpersonal dynamics,” Carlomagno said. “The governance team has been unsuccessful in achieving any resolution to these challenges.
As a result, she said, “I have been unable to focus on the work necessary to support our strategic educational initiatives.”
A Sonoma native and 25-year District employee, Carlomagno said she leaves the job “with a heavy heart.”
“It has been an extraordinary honor to serve as Superintendent these last seven and a half years,” she said. “Know that as a local resident, as a former employee, and as a graduate of Sonoma Valley High School, I will always support our educators and our schools.”
A 1980 garduate of Sonoma Valley High School, Carlomagno started her career with SVUSD in 1991 as a high school science teacher. She later taught at Sonoma Charter School, was a vice principal at Altimira Middle School and was principal of El Verano School. Previously, she served as the district’s director of curriculum and instruction.
Her resignation is effective June 30.
“A different superintendent may be better able to address these issues and to re-unify the governance team,” she said.
The position oversees as $49 million budget, 4,000 students and 11 schools.
The District thrived under Carlomagno’s leadership, said School Board President Dan Gustafson. “We have been fortunate to have a local resident with us for so many years in so many capacities,” he said. “On a personal note, I consider Louann to be the most talented superintendent a school district could hope for, and I feel truly fortunate to have worked with her.”
“Her dedication to our students and families, as well as to District employees, has been evident to all,” he said.
Carlomagno, and her husband Brian Wirick, also a 1980 SVHS graduate, raised their three children in the Valley.
“The District’s ability to provide high quality services to our students and families did not begin with my arrival nor will it end with my departure,” she said. “Transitions are difficult. Yet, working together, we have weathered many storms, and we will weather this one as well.”
3 thoughts on “Carlomagno resigns as school chief”
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As a public school employee who has worked in several districts, under many different superintendents, over the last 18 years, I can honestly say that Louann was the best. This is a great loss to our valley schools.
The elephant in the room that nobody wants to discuss in print, is the correlation between the recent school board election and the more recent resignation that has devastated our school board. The cause and effect cannot be questioned. Once again, the proverbial two wrongs have not made a right. What had been a cohesive, tight-knit group of effective, like minded people, who had nothing but a better education for the Valley’s Children in focus, has been infiltrated by a disruptive, self-serving force with a deliberate alternative agenda. The problem is easily identified, the solution easily defined, yet executing the remedy, just like the persona that has poisoned the environment of the Board, is decidedly un-Sonoma-like. While we will all miss Louann, the same cannot be said about the newest member of the Board, should he decide to do the right thing and resign.
What efforts are underway to remove Kelly from the Board and pave the way for Louann to return? How do we get something going? Anyone?
We can’t sit around and do nothing.
I pay attention to what goes on at the CC and PC but have not tuned into School Board meetings; as a result I don’t feel I have the knowledge to lay out what needs to be done. I am ready to help a principled response.