School Board re-organizes; Superintendent officially announces retirement

December 12, 2018

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Before a packed house at their meeting room, the Los Al School District welcomes its newly elected and re-elected members, honored those who had helped the successful passage of Measure G in November, and officially approved a contract that will initiate the search and hiring process for a new school superintendent.

The latter was necessary due to the formal announcement of Superintendent Dr. Sherry Kropp that she would retire as Superintendent in April 2019, after eight years in the position.

She had been letting district staff and teachers know of her retirement decision over the past few weeks, but it became official with the services contract with Leadership Associates to begin the search for a new district leader.

Leadership Associates is the same search firm hired by the District eight years ago, when Dr. Kropp was hired. School Board members met with the company at the afternoon workshop meeting, where the contract with Leadership Associates was approved by a vote of 4-0.

Kropp, who started her education career in Washington state, has been with the district since being hired as a math and sciences teacher (and assistant coach) at Los Alamitos High School in 1985. In the mid-1990s, then-principal Carol Hart convinced Kropp to switch over to the administrative side at the school. In April 1998, Kropp became an interim principal at Los Al when Hart moved to the District Office, then Principal at Laurel Continuation High School. In 2004 she became the district director of instruction and special projects, and a year later was named Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services. She succeeded Greg Franklin as superintendent in mid 2011. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English, a Master’s degree in Educational Administration, and a Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership.

Dr. Kropp has also served on the boards of several local non-profit organizations — most recently the Los Alamitos/Seal Beach Rotary Club and the Los Alamitos Area Chamber of Commerce.

The first item of business at the evening session was the oath of office for Diana Hill who was re-elected to her third term and newly elected Board Member Marlys Davidson. Diana Hill was elected to serve as Board President for the coming year. Board Member Meg Cutuli was elected to serve as Vice President.

Davidson, who was a long-time teacher at McAuliffe Middle School and the parent of two students who went through the Los Al system, received a spirited ovation from a crowd heavily populated with teachers who strongly supported her campaign.

The final major item of the night was the honoring of those who provided support “above and beyond” for the passage of Measure G.