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| Superintendent Shaps's retirement letter; click to enlarge |
Oyster River Superintendent Robert Shaps has announced that he will retire in June, 2027. He began at Oyster River in July, 2024, taking the reigns after James Morse's retirement. He is currently in the second year of a three year contract, which he will not seek to renew. The 15 month heads-up allows an orderly search process for a successor.
The announcement comes on the heels of a relatively successful election for the school district in a rather difficult period. The large budget passed and the two incumbent school board members were reelected. All but one of the board-recommended warrant articles passed, and the four citizen petition articles, explicitly not recommended by the board, all failed.
The one district failure was that only 49% of us voted for the $10M bond for the elementary schools renovation and expansion project. 60% was required for passage, and that threshold was not reached in any of the towns. Only 34% of Lee voters, notably grumpy over their apparent outsized share of the taxes, voted for the project.
There was a substantial online contingent angry about the school tax increases including the elementary project, and much of their anger was directed at the board and superintendent. Despite the district's mixed but positive results on election day, it appears the opposition was sufficient to cause the superintendent to announce he would not try to renew his contract.
