Update: Brusa confirms he's leaving TCSD

It looks as though the Taft City School District will be looking for a new superintendent.
Mike Brusa, who has been on the job for the past two years, said Monday he intends to accept a superintendent’s position in Salinas if it is offered.

And, it looks like it will be.

He said he expects to be offered the position Wednesday evening after a team from the Santa Rita School District visits Taft.

That district’s Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Wednesday night and is expected to offer Brusa the job of running the six-campus district in Salinas.

The TCSD board also meets Wednesday night, but a resignation is not likely then.
Brusa is expecting to be offered the Santa Rita job sometime after his board meets.
“I’ll probably write my letter of resignation Thursday morning,” he said.  “It will be effective July 31.”

Brusa said the reason he’s leaving Taft is strictly personal.

“It’s right were my family is and where I grew up,” he said.  “I’ll be 15 minutes away from mom and dad, 15 minutes from my brother and 20 minutes from the job.  They’re all pretty close.”

Brusa owns a home in the area.

“It’s paid for, so the transition will be easy.”

If he gets the job as expected, he’ll be shuttling back and forth between Taft and Salinas tying up loose ends here and doing some transition work with outgoing Santa Rita Supt. Jim Fontana.

Although Brusa is eager to relocate near his family, he said he will miss Taft.

“Taft is a great community,” he said.  “There are a lot of good people here.  I have certainly enjoyed my time here.

“The school district here has good potential.  We’ve got some good things going.  We’ve got a lot of things started with the high school.  Hopefully, we can keep that going because that will make things better for the kids.”

Brusa told board president Dee Goodwin of his intentions while she is on vacation.
And, he called longtime trustee Les Clark Jr.

 “I wish him the best of luck,” Clark said.  “It’s good news for him, but bad news for us.”
He said he understands Brusa’s motives.

“He explained to me that his parents are getting older and that he’d like to be closer to them.  We all go through that.
”
Clark noted that Brusa’s son is in the military and about to ship out for a second tour of duty in Afghanistan, “so he’s got a lot on his plate right now.”

But he added that a Brusa resignation would put the district in a bit of a bind.

“It’s just not all that easy to replace a superintendent,” he said.  “The last time we didn’t get a lot of people applying.  If Mike had turned down the job, I think we would have had to go back to the drawing board.”

Timing is crucial too.

“School’s out for the year and finding a replacement at this time is not an easy thing.  He did tell me that he’d be back to finish things up.”

Brusa has enjoyed good relations with the district’s employee groups despite budget cuts that led to layoffs.

His only controversies have been with parents over bullying and with the Elk Hills School District over an attempt to siphon students from the Taft area.

He has had to wrestle with one of the district’s worst financial dilemmas.
Like other school districts in California, Taft has been hit hard by the state’s fiscal crisis, and that led to a $2 million deficit and layoffs for both teaching faculty and the classified staff.

Brusa also has been presiding over a major effort to improve test scores.

The district had deficiencies in its achievement levels mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.