ROYALTON — White River Valley Supervisory Union Superintendent Bruce Labs plans to step down at the end of the school year.
The veteran Upper Valley educator, who is in his late 60s, announced his resignation, effective June 30, to the supervisory union’s executive board on Monday.
After taking the reins of what was then the Orange-Windsor Supervisory Union in 2014, Labs steered the new district through several changes in response to Vermont’s Act 46 school consolidation law.
“It was a tumultuous time,” Andrew Jones, who represents Royalton on the full union board, said on Wednesday. “We appreciated his leadership on that. And he did particularly great work on our literacy efforts, improving reading skills throughout the supervisory union.”
Labs was unavailable to comment on his decision Wednesday. In his resignation letter, he wrote, “It is my hope that in some small way I have left this place better than it was in the lives of children and families from the communities in the S.U.”
The supervisory union serves schools in Royalton, Bethel, Tunbridge, Chelsea, Stockbridge, Sharon, Strafford and Rochester and students from the towns of Hancock and Granville.
Despite the recent discovery of a $450,000 budget deficit in the White River Unified District — which runs an elementary school and a middle school in Bethel and a high school in South Royalton — district board chairwoman Lisa Floyd said on Wednesday that she “was somewhat surprised” by Labs’ announcement.
“As we search for a replacement,” said Floyd, who also represents Bethel on the supervisory union’s executive board, “it will be paramount for us to look for someone who has similar curricular goals, and has an eye on the strategic capacity to manage a geographically large district.”
Labs came to the Royalton-based job after 36 years with School Administrative Unit 23 in Haverhill, the last 11 as superintendent of eight schools in Haverhill, Piermont, Bath and Warren. In 2011, the New Hampshire School Administrators Association named him superintendent of the year.
Labs started his teaching career in 1973 as an elementary school teacher and earned a master’s of education degree at what was then known as Plymouth State College.
He made $101,588 during his final year as superintendent at SAU 23, and in his final year at the White River Valley Supervisory Union, he is receiving $126,259, according to the supervisory union’s business office.
When Labs arrived in 2014, the Orange-Windsor Supervisory Union encompassed Royalton, Sharon, Strafford, Tunbridge and Chelsea.
Over the ensuing three years, Bethel joined Royalton in the White River Valley Unified District — a merger under which Bethel gave up its Whitcomb High School and started sending its students to the former South Royalton High School for grades 9 to 12. Royalton’s middle school students take classes with Bethel students at what is now known as White River Valley Middle School in Bethel.
In addition to the consolidation of school districts, challenges that Labs faced included the revelation that South Royalton School’s then-principal, Dean Stearns, surreptitiously recorded video of five teenage girls during stays at his Sharon home in 2016 and 2017.
Stearns pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2018 and is awaiting sentencing.
Despite such issues, Labs ended his resignation letter, which was addressed to Executive Board Chairman Don Shaw, of Sharon, on an upbeat note.
“I look forward to whatever role the Boards might wish me to play in preparing the Supervisory Union for new leadership before I leave in June,” Labs wrote. “Working here has truly been an honor and a pleasure.”
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com or at 603-727- 3304.
Clarification
The White River Valley Supe rvisory Union serves schools in Royalton, Bethel, Tunbridge, Chelsea, Stockbridge, Sharon, Strafford and Rochester and students from the towns of Hancock and Granville. An earlier version of this story neglected to mention the latter two towns.