Superintedent Shaps announces June, 2027 retirement, not soon enough for the teachers

 

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.

Summarized Survey

I wrote that a week ago, but didn't post it because it seemed incomplete. Since then, the rumored ORCSD Teachers' Guild Climate & Culture Survey Results report has been released. The Guild is the teachers' union; the survey respondents are all ORCSD teachers.  Edit: I'm told the survey was of teachers and staff, sorry about that.  Edit 4/12: Guild members include teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors, all surveyed. I'm getting conflicting reports about whether the report included staff that aren't guild members; some say they were surveyed but those numbers are not included in this report. I think the report we're seeing is just guild members.  I'll referred to the surveyed as 'staff' below.

The survey focuses on the relationship between the staff and Superintendent Shaps. TL;DR: it sucks.

Lots of pretty charts in the report illustrate how much the staff, including teachers, hate the superintendent; I've pasted most of them in below to get this out fast.  Here's pretty much the entire report in a small table just in case you don't have time to savor the pretty charts.

168 Responses received   

212 Total eligible members

79% Overall response rate

Responses by building:

Mast Way  26  Moharimet 26  Middle School 59  High School 57

Years of Service of respondent: 

0–5: 33  5–10: 47   10–15: 27   15–20: 12  20+: 49

Responses                                           Disagree Agree

I believe the Superintendent:

-provides effective leadership.                       86%      14%

-operates with the best interest of staff in mind.    94%       6% 

-respects and values staff in this district.          87%      13% 

-addresses parent complaints appropriately.           70%      30% 

-can be trusted.                                      87%      13% 

I feel that Oyster River is a great school

district to work for.                                 40%      60%

 

I feel that my building is a stressful place to work. 41%      59%

I believe that the culture and climate in the 

Oyster River School District has continued to

thrive under the new Superintendent.                  92%       8% 

The Superintendent has my vote of confidence in 

his continued leadership in Oyster River.             88%      12% 

I feel comfortable expressing what I really think

about an issue in front of my Superintendent.         88%      12%

I believe I can disagree with my Superintendent

without fear of retribution.                          89%      11% 

I believe that my personal input on local-level

decisions affecting my students or my working 

conditions is important to the Superintendent.        90%      10% 

Wow.

Edit: I'm getting some pushback claiming the survey was done online with insufficient protections against multiple submissions by a single person.   They further point out the questions are leading and there is no neutral option.  I suppose it doesn't hurt to be reminded that there's a non-trivial possibility that we’re being played. 

Edit 4/13:  I'm getting pushback to the pushback, claiming the survey questions were in standard format, the survey was professionally designed and administered by the NEA, and included an individualized link for each eligible member to guard against multiple submissions.  Sorry about the back and forth but I can only report what people tell me when they tell me.

Light Commentary on Some Charts from the Survey

168 of the 212 teachers and staff responded, with only 12% expressing confidence in the continued leadership of the superintendent. The report was presented to the board and superintendent in non-public session on March 5, 2026, which perhaps explains Dr. Shaps's reason not seek to renew his contract. 

Let's just share some charts from the report.

60% say the district is great but stressful.

That's a real vote of no confidence.  If this was a parliament, we'd have to have a new election.

I hadn't heard this parent complaint complaint.

Wow. The teachers and staff really can't stand the superintendent. I would hear occasional grumbles about former Superintendent Morse, but nothing like this; at least they didn't commission a formal survey to document the disdain.

[Edit: I removed some charts that were in a preview of the report I saw but not in the final report.]

As I'm sure all school board members know, the superintendent works for the school board. It's his job to execute the duly authorized will of the school board. To the extent he does something they don't like, they need to say stop.  Acting in opposition to the direction of the board is grounds for dismissal.