WESTMINSTER — Adams County District 50 Superintendent Roberta Selleck has announced her retirement, saying she will end her sometimes controversial tenure on June 30.
Selleck submitted her resignation in a letter to District 50 board president Vicky Marshall. During a special meeting Thursday night, the school board voted 5-0 to accept the resignation.
Selleck has been on family medical leave since last week tending to her mother in Arizona and will continue to be on leave until June, according to the school district.
Deputy superintendent Pamela Swanson will serve as acting superintendent through the end of June.
“With a heavy heart, I must inform the Board of Education that I will be retiring from my position on June 30, 2011,” Selleck wrote in the letter that was read aloud by Marshall.
Selleck was named superintendent of District 50 in July 2006 after previously serving as superintendent in two Illinois school districts.
Selleck had applied to lead districts in Naples, Fla. and Gallatin, Tenn. However, she did not make the final cut for either superintendent post.
During her five-year tenure, District 50 and the board of education successfully passed $98 million bond referendum, which paid for the construction of two new schools, worked with the Westminster Education Association to create the highest teacher pay table in the state, and worked to “right size” the district by closing seven “under-enrolled” or aging schools, according to a statement from the district.
Selleck also oversaw the district’s conversion to a standards-based education system in 2009. Westminster 50 — with an enrollment of 10,000 — was the largest district in the country to adopt the standards based method.
She’s also attracted plenty of critics, however. Some board members and parents say the district has been mismanaged while she held the superintendent’s post.
Selleck’s $215,500-a-year salary and her use of “special benefits” as a top district administrator has also attracted detractors. The benefits package — which gives cash to 60 top administrators, ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 that they may use for professional development or keep as extra pay — expanded under Selleck and now costs taxpayers about $135,000 a year, according to an investigation CBS Channel 4.
The district expects to cut approximately $6.5 million from its budget for the 2011-12 school year.
District spokesman Steve Saunders no decisions regarding a search for a new leader have been made.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
