Dase to leave Pleasant Valley

Pleasant Valley School District Superintendent Thomas Dase was expected to be appointed as superintendent of the Cambrian School District in San Jose, Calif., during its board meeting last night.

If he's selected, Dase plans to resign from Pleasant Valley by Sept. 15.

"In the state of California, there's a lot of positions that are open right now, and as a result, the search firms are being very aggressive and they attracted me with a really good offer up in the San Jose area," Dase said.

School board president Ron Speakman said the average tenure of school superintendents is just over two years and that Dase's departure is not unusual.

"So he's right on the average," Speakman said. "It certainly is not out of the ordinary. It certainly is not doom and gloom for the district."

Dase, 56, who has served with Pleasant Valley since 2004, will leave as district officials are in the midst of battling Oxnard Unified High School District for control of Camarillo's high school students.

That, however, doesn't seem to have school board members worried.

"We are not going to skip a beat," Speakman said.

Although Dase plans to take the superintendent position with the five-school district in San Jose, his wife, Mary Ann, will stay in Ventura County until she finishes out her contract with Pepperdine University next year.

During his tenure as superintendent, three of Pleasant Valley's 15 schools-El Descanso, Las Colinas and Santa Rosa Technology Magnet-were named California Distinguished Schools. As one of the top-scoring districts in the county, Pleasant Valley continues to post an average API score of 800.

An advocate of technology in education, Dase and the school board recently expanded a laptop program at Santa Rosa school.

This year Dase introduced to the district Zangle, an Internet-based software that allows teachers and parents to monitor their child's progress online.

It was that push for technology that likely attracted the Cambrian district-at the heart of the Silicon Valley-to recruit Dase.

"They cherry-picked the state and came up with our superintendent," school trustee Sandra Berg said.

District officials said they expect to name a replacement for Dase in the near future.