The superintendent of the South Summit School District has accepted a new position with the Park City School District as Human Resources Director. He will make the move in the middle of the school year – just after the Christmas holidays.
South Summit Superintendent Shad Sorenson gave his resignation a few months ago to accept the job of Chief Human Resources Officer for the Park City School District.
“ I’m looking forward to that opportunity to continue to work in Summit County. It certainly was not a decision that was easy for me,” Sorenson said. “I love what I’m doing, and I love the Kamas Valley. I have a master’s degree in Human Resources and I believe there is a time and season for all things and believe that Dr. Herase is going to bring some assets and skills to our district that is going to benefit us at this time and hope that I am able to provide that same positive contribution to Park City School District.”
When he announced his resignation, the South Summit Board of Education knew they would have better luck finding his replacement this spring. Sorenson reached out to some of his colleagues who he knew had recently retired and had the experience as a superintendent. Steve Herase has been retired for three years and says he’s happy to fill in for the next several months.
“Again I'll be going back into retirement I have time to spend and anytime that they you know require I'm happy to come up I actually really enjoy being in the Valley there and it's some place that I spent a lot of time before doing a lot of fishing and camping up in the Uintas and so I don't mind going up in the valley at all,” Hearse said.
Herase spent 38 years in education, working in the Jordan and Murray School districts as a special education teacher, elementary principal, special education director as well as superintendent.
Herase has already been attending South Summit School Board meetings and has toured all of the district facilities, meeting with district staff and principals. Sorenson says Herase will hit the ground running.
“So, I believe one, because of his experience, many of the issues that he's hearing and the things that we're working on and strategic initiatives that we have in place he's very familiar with and will be able to naturally step in and continue their momentum,” he said. “Secondly because we were having these transition meetings ,which is unique sometimes you don't get that opportunity I think is giving a sense of comfort to the staff that isn't always there during the transition.”
Sorenson moves to his new job in Park City starting in January.
Meanwhile as South Summit tries to juggle the safety of their staff and students, the decision was made to go to all online learning after Thanksgiving between Nov. 30th and December 4th . Sorenson says they will do the same thing after the Christmas break – not reopening the schools in person until Monday January 11th.
