Don Grotting, the David Douglas School District superintendent for the past six years, is moving on. On July 1 he becomes Beaverton School District superintendent.
David Douglas School District Superintendent Don Grotting, 59, leaves for greener pastures in Beaverton after six years at the helm of Oregon’s twelfth largest school district. As Beaverton is Oregon’s third largest district behind only Salem-Keizer and Portland, he stands to make a hefty raise. In 2010 Grotting poses with predecessor Barbara Rommel at the David Douglas Educational Foundation Dinner & Auction. Who’s next in line for the job?
With degrees and licenses from Linfield College, Portland State University and Lewis and Clark College, Grotting has served previously as a teacher and the superintendent in the Powers and Nyssa school districts. He grew up in Coquille, Oregon, and served in the U.S. Army. Working afterwards at a Georgia Pacific sawmill, where he watched the decline of the timber industry, he decided to study elementary education. Grotting holds many advanced degrees and citizen and education awards.
Grotting will see a substantial annual increase in compensation from $202,740 upon his recently announced move. According to the Oregonian, Grotting’s first-year compensation package will be $291,500—which rises to $330,528 in his third year, making him Oregon’s highest-paid school district superintendent.
Grotting’s new assignment is not without challenges: a high school redistricting process has begun, and he’ll likely lead the redrawing effort while addressing parental concerns about proximity and district transportation issues.
A regular DDSD board meeting was held June 16, followed by a special board meeting addressing Grotting’s resignation and the search for his replacement. District Communications Manager Dan McCue explained the recruitment/replacement process via email: the board “voted unanimously to seek a replacement for outgoing Superintendent Don Grotting through an internal search process.” DDSD posted the opening for internal candidates Friday, June 17, to close June 24, 2016. Qualified candidates will be interviewed the first week in July, according to McCue.
Grotting is the second consecutive superintendent plucked from an east Portland school district that’s been by Beaverton’s school board. Grotting’s predecessor Jeff Rose, who created the opening for Grotting, was a principal in Parkrose before Beaverton; he left there recently to helm an even larger district in Georgia.
Asked by the Memo to recap his DDSD highlights, Grotting replied, “Most rewarding experiences: Increasing student achievement and opportunities for students of color, poverty and second language. Creating and implementing Early Childhood Education.
“I will miss my staff, school board and students, as well as close friendships developed with parents and other community members. My daughter just graduated from David Douglas High School and received a first class education.”
