Ridgefield School District Superintendent Nathan McCann will be leaving his position this week, the district announced Wednesday, Aug. 9.
The RSD Board of Directors and McCann agreed to part ways, a district release stated. The district accepted McCann’s resignation effective Aug. 15.
The district and McCann “have determined that, through the fault of neither party, Dr. McCann’s significant skill, knowledge and experience are not the best match for the present needs of the district,” the release stated.
McCann began as superintendent for RSD in July 2014. The School Board thanked him for his service, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and wished him future success, according to the release.
In a statement within the release, McCann said he was thankful for a near decade-long opportunity to work with school staff, as well as past and present board members.
“Ridgefield is truly a special community, and I’m excited to see what lies ahead for our schools,” McCann said.
Details were scarce as to the exact nature of McCann’s departure as of press deadline. First announced as the replacement for retiring superintendent Art Edgerly in March 2014, McCann began his tenure in the 2014-15 school year, moving from the Altar Valley School District in Arizona.
McCann’s tenure included successes and failures in expanding the district’s infrastructure. In the second year of McCann’s tenure, RSD had 2,514 students. This past school year, the district student population increased by about 58%, to 3,972, according to the state Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction.
The district’s growth was always a factor in planning for RSD’s future, and early on in McCann’s time with the district, the future looked bright.
In 2017, voters approved by more than a 2-1 margin a nearly $78 million construction bond that built the campus containing Sunset Ridge Intermediate School and View Ridge Middle School, among other capital improvements.
Beginning in 2019, the district was unsuccessful in passing a subsequent bond. In 2020, efforts to pass a roughly $40.5 million bond to build a new elementary school failed by as close as 62 votes to reach beyond the 60% supermajority needed for approval.
The district tried again — a total of five times — and could never pass the supermajority, most recently in April 2022.
Outside of the bonds, McCann’s tenure also included two strikes by the district’s teacher’s union. In 2018, the Ridgefield Education Association striked for three days, one of the shorter strikes in a year where teachers unions across the county and state fought to get more out of increased state funding through the Legislature’s answer to a state Supreme Court decision on educational funding the year prior.
In 2022, the Ridgefield union went on strike again, this time over demands for smaller special education class sizes and more paraeducator support, among other issues. That strike lasted for six days.
District Assistant Superintendent Chris Griffith will serve as interim superintendent following McCann’s departure, the release stated. The board will select a consulting firm to lead the district’s search for a permanent replacement in the coming weeks and months.
