Templeton Unified School District (TUSD) is working on a plan to fill the superintendent position after its current superintendent, Joe Koski, notified the district of his resignation.

On May 24, Koski emailed a letter to the district and community notifying them of his decision to not pursue a contract renewal beyond July 30.

Jan Nimick, school board president, said Koski will finish his superintendent duties at the end of the school year, and Aaron Asplund, the district's chief business official, will step into an interim superintendent role.

Nimick said that while a plan for hiring a permanent superintendent isn't set in stone, the board anticipates going through a competitive process to find the right fit for Templeton Unified.

"But really what we're going to do as far as picking the final superintendent is engage with all our stakeholders. We want to have forums with the staff, community, and the students to hear from them what attributes and characteristics are most important to them in a superintendent," he said.

The forums are expected to start sometime late summer.

The letter Koski released to the public stated that he had been serving as the superintendent since 2011 and accepted the position knowing that he would be serving as the superintendent of the district and would assume the roles of human resources director, curriculum development director, and alternative education director, as well as the principal for three schools.

The letter stated that the California Department of Education dramatically changed curriculum content standards, the accountability system, and assessments in a single year.

"Despite the valiant efforts of my staff and me, TUSD has been fighting an uphill battle to maintain excellence. There is much to be proud of since the adoption of the California Content Standards, Local Control Accountability Plan, and the Smarter Balanced Assessment; however, I have come to realize that the scope and number of my duties are no longer tenable," the letter read.

Koski said he believes it's time for the district to make revise the composition and structure of the leadership team in order to pave the way for those changes. For those reasons, he said that he declined to pursue a contract extension.

"We're recognizing that our district office is thin. We're going to be looking at how we can address that," Nimick said. Δ