NORTH RIDGEVILLE — After a little more than a year as superintendent of North Ridgeville City Schools, Larry Brown is announcing his plans to resign at a board meeting Nov. 6.
Brown will take a superintendent position at Wauseon Village Schools in Wauseon, west of Toledo. He said he is scheduled to begin in January.
Brown — the former superintendent of Green Schools in Wayne County — was hired at North Ridgeville on Aug. 1, 2011, to replace retired Superintendent Craig Phillips. He said “personal and professional reasons” led to his decision to resign.
School board President Maria Sycz would not say what personal and professional reasons led to Brown’s announcement, but she said the board was “a little surprised” by his decision.
Sycz said the school board will discuss its future actions during a meeting Nov. 6. She said that although it’s too soon to tell, the district may decide to leave the position open or appoint an interim superintendent while it searches for a new candidate. Sycz said Brown will remain with North Ridgeville until he takes his job at Wauseon.
Brown’s announcement comes less than two weeks before a proposed levy for the school district.
Voters have rejected the 10-year emergency operating levy three years in a row. This year, the district is asking to approve a 5.9-mill levy that will generate $4.9 million a year.
Sycz has said if the levy is again defeated, all extracurricular and athletic activities will be cut, as well as art, music and physical education for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Sycz said she is still optimistic that voters will pass the levy, given the severity of the district’s situation. She stressed, however, that additional money is needed, despite who is superintendent.
“Regardless of who’s driving the bus, the need is still there … (passing the levy) would be my one thing I’d hope would happen,” she said. “We’re really at a breaking point.”
Contact Chelsea Miller at 329-7123 or cmiller@chroniclet.com.
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