Fourth in a series.
Re: “1,2,3,4,5 Reasons LaRose Has Resigned”
After identifying as milestones the recent academic degree achievements of his wife and younger daughter, departing School District Supt. Dave LaRose said the LaRose family’s immediate sabbatical-type course is etched in neon:
“If we are ever to take a chance and say, ‘Let’s step back and see where it might lead,’ that is what we want to do right now.”
Lindsey, a UCLA graduate, the LaRoses’ elder daughter, is an actress who lives not far from her parents, and Madison is an RN in Phoenix.
To the question of whether the LaRoses, after four years in Culver City, will remain in Southern California, the admittedly fatigued 50-year-old administrator simply said “Wow.”
Pause.
“Like what would be the Las Vegas odds on it? What would the over-under be?” he asked with a trademark light laugh.
The ultimate response from a clearly restless roamer was inevitable.
“I think early on…probably it would be…I don’t know.
“I don’t want to limit us and landlock ourselves in because you never know what might happen. There is an element of sheer economics you need to consider when you make a decision such as this.”
The question of why leave now involves complex of answers.
Down to his final three months as superintendent after an ever-soaring, almost uniformly upbeat four-year term, Mr. LaRose identified his artistic wife Mindy as the family’s “most powerful and influential” force.
“Mindy has been a rock about this,” he said.
June 2016 never had been planned as a long-range Change of Life scenario.
“There was not an incident, or a moment or an experience that led to this decision,” he said. “I had not set a target that at a certain age I was going to do something.”
If anything, Mr. LaRose said, his verdict sprang from the other end of the spectrum.
“I probably am less calculating about career trajectories and pathways than maybe I should be,” he admitted.