Laura Shain, the principal and superintendent of Lagunitas School District who led its elementary programs through a challenging merger over the past year, will retire in June.
Shain, 66, a resident of San Anselmo, has been Lagunitas School principal for 13 years. She also took on the half-time role of district superintendent for the past year after former superintendent John Carroll was elected Marin County superintendent of schools.
“Laura is an amazing school leader and has been a perfect fit for the Lagunitas School District,” Carroll, who worked with Shain for nine years, said Monday in an email. “Even though I was officially her ‘supervisor,’ it always felt like a true partnership in running the district.”
Carroll credited Shain with the district being able to navigate the tumult before, during and after the merger of two longstanding elementary programs — Montessori and Open Classroom — that each had their fierce loyalists.
“I am not sure anyone else would have been able to guide the board, parents, community and staff through such an emotional moment in the school’s history,” Carroll said.
“All of her diplomatic skills — listening, analyzing, building relationships and staying focused on students — were needed to bring the school to its next phase,” he said.
Shain said she plans to stay in education as a part-time teacher or interim administrator. She would also like to be an adjunct teacher working with adults on a part-time basis.
“I also want to spend some time visiting with my daughter, who lives in Los Angeles,” she said.
District trustees voted last April to merge the elementary programs because of declining enrollment and a need for change and restructuring. In particular, the consolidation appealed to some younger families who wanted their children to be in larger classes with more opportunities for peer socialization.
“It’s doing so wonderfully now,” Shain said Monday of the new elementary program and the entire school. “The students are thriving, the parents are more involved than ever.”
The school’s two campuses have also had extra classroom space freed up by the changes.
“I’m leaving at a time where the district is in really good shape and a real positive place for next year,” Shain said. “I feel very satisfied and that I’ve acted responsibly with the district, which feels to me like family.”
A new student “enrichment” center has been created for the entire transitional kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, including a maker’s space for tech and engineering projects, she said. Other additions are a full-time art and music room, a garden and science laboratory, a middle school library and a fitness center with a ropes course.
“We’re also renovating the soccer field, with the help of West Marin Soccer League,” Shain said. “And we’re hoping to get food from Conscious Kitchen that includes more organic.”
The merger also led to a strengthening of the district’s relationship with the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, which runs its after-school program, Shain said. The community center operates from a district-owned building on the lower campus along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in San Geronimo.
Enrollment has stabilized at 165 students after some concerns during the pandemic that families were leaving for other school options that reopened their classrooms earlier.
“This was the only way to move forward,” said Denise Bohman, president of the district’s board of trustees, referring to the merger. “Parents wanted it.”
Bohman, who worked with Shain on implementing the consolidated program, said Shain understood the progressive culture of the Lagunitas district and western Marin.
“She’s probably the best fit we’ve ever had for this district,” Bohman said. “We’ll miss her so much.”
Bohman, a Lagunitas board member since 1999, announced at the most recent board meeting that she will not seek reelection in November after 25 years of service.
“There’s a lot of parents now who are ready to step forward,” Bohman said. “It’s the perfect time for us old-timers to step aside.”
Trustee Richard Sloan, who has been on the board since 1971, said he has not decided if he will seek re-election in November.
Sloan, 88, said he was “leaning toward not continuing” because of health problems, but that his service as a trustee was such a major part of his life that it would be hard to give up.
“I’ll see who steps forward,” he said. “I’ll decide in August.”
Meanwhile, Bohman said the board is advertising for Shain’s replacement in three different ways: superintendent/principal, principal or superintendent.
“We have to see what’s out there,” Bohman said.
