Assistant Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen Resigning from CSD Effective June 28th
Decatur Metro | June 21, 2013As is apparently mentioned deep within the personnel report submitted to the School Board at the June 11th meeting, Assistant Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen is leaving his position at City Schools of Decatur effective June 28th. In a note addressed to a parent and posted on the Winnona Park message board, Mr. Van Soelen detailed his future plans…
I started my own educational consulting firm focused on learning communities, leadership development, and teacher evaluation.
Despite some tough conversations and inquiries over the years, Mr. Van Soelen has always been an accommodating, friendly and knowledgeable contact for us. We certainly wish him the best!
According to the personnel report, some really fine folks are leaving CSD, some I didn’t expect. I wish them all well and welcome the new folks. Here’s hoping that we get as many fine folks joining us as are leaving.
Bummed. Thomas is a great guy who gave all of his talents to CSD and made many improvements. He will be missed. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
Best to you on your new endeavor, Thomas Van Soelen! Not mentioned, but what I hope you’ll also be coaching folks on, is how to handle things on blogs. You deserve mad props on how skillful you were at that for CSD– not only would you come on here and politely provide information, but you were a master at slipping in stealth snark! (Just wanted you to know it was appreciated! :0)
Thanks Deanne. Skillful is a good word to describe Dr. Van Soelen. Not only did he have to navigate the treacherous waters of the Central Office and the suspicions of both veteran and new teachers, he also faced angry parents, some of whom did not believe a word he said or wrote. I too was suspicious of his implementation of a new teacher evaluation program, Class Keys, and dreaded the possibility of him showing up in my classroom with his 26 item checklist. But over the years I grew to respect both his intellect and sence of humor. He had an impossible job, working/reporting directly to the superintendent, implementing programs that caused unbelievable teacher stress, and dealing with the most demanding parents in the state. But he handled it all with a great deal of professionalism and integrity. Maybe the best thing I can say about him was that he was a gentleman, that he loved his children, and worked hard to make the City Schools of Decatur a better place. He would have made a fine superintendent and may still do so in the future. I wish him well.
Thomas has been a tremendous public servant and will be very hard to replace. Thanks Thomas! And best wishes for the new firm.
I am disappointed CSD didn’t at least let everyone know Thomas would be leaving. He’s going to be very difficult to replace!