JOHN DAY — The Grant School District is losing its superintendent and a pair of school board members.

Halfway through his first year on the job, Grant School District Superintendent Louis Dix has announced plans to retire following the 2022-23 school year.

Dix, 56, made his announcement during the Jan. 18 school board meeting. Within days, Chair Haley Walker and board member Aaron Lieuallen tendered their resignations.

It was not immediately clear whether the two events were related. Neither Walker nor Lieuallen could be reached for comment prior to press time.

A majority of the board — including Walker and Lieuallen — voted to accept Dix’s retirement at the Jan. 18 meeting, with members Chris Labhart and Jake Taylor voting no.

Dix began his tenure following the departure of former Superintendent Bret Uptmor on July 1 of last year.

A provision within Dix’s employment contract allows him to retire or resign if he gives the school board proper notification of his intentions. His retirement will become official on July 1.

Dix’s retirement comes on the heels of a performance review conducted in executive session during the Dec. 14 board meeting. In open session at the Jan. 18 meeting, numerous members of the community characterized the performance review as unproductive when the floor was opened up for public comments, and board member Colleen Robertson expressed regret for the way the review transpired.

Labhart said he and other members of the board were taken off guard by the evaluation, which came sooner than they had expected and included anonymous survey responses.

“According to what I hear from people that were on the board before, (the superintendent) is usually given a yearly evaluation and that’s it,” he told the newspaper. “This particular evaluation came out of the blue.”

“If you want my short-term answer,” Labhart added, “I think it was a hit job.”

School board Co-chair Alicia Griffin said the performance evaluation was done in accordance with Coalition of Oregon School Administrators guidelines. COSA is the group that helped the district recruit and hire Dix.

Griffin also said the review shouldn’t have been a surprise to anybody as it was scheduled to be completed in October.

Labhart said he voted against accepting Dix’s retirement because Dix signed a three-year contract to be the superintendent of Grant School District and Labhart thinks that contract should be honored.

Dix has stated that he would be willing to remain in the role of interim superintendent for the 2023-24 school year if the district can’t find somebody to fill the position before then.

Dix downplayed the impact of the evaluation and said he has no hard feelings toward anybody in the school district or on the board.

“That (evaluation) doesn’t have anything to do with why I’m choosing to retire,” he said. “I just felt like this is the right time for me to retire in my life and in my career.”

Dix stressed that he loved his work as superintendent of the Grant School District, but retirement is something he and his wife have discussed for some time. Dix also wanted to reiterate that he and his wife plan on staying and living in John Day.

“I love this community,” he said. “I’m not planning on leaving.”

Thoughts about retirement began to crop up a couple of years ago, according to Dix. After 31 years of work in the academic field, Dix said he and his wife are sure that now is the time for him to step away.

Dix is now looking forward to spending more time with his wife and his family. Dix also pointed to being able to travel more and helping coach wrestling as things he’d like to do post-retirement.

Before any of those things happen, a laundry list of items are on Dix’s agenda before he heads out the door. Among those are replacing the roof at Grant Union High School, a partial replacement of the roof at Humbolt Elementary, security measures including added fencing and upgraded door locks for schools, redoing the gym floor at Grant Union High School and playground upgrades at Humbolt.

Dix said he’d like to see those projects completed or at least well on their way by the time he hands the job over to the next superintendent of Grant School District.

At that point, Dix plans to start enjoying his retirement.

“My wife asked me, ‘What are you going to do on July 1?,’” he said. “I said, ‘I’m going to sleep in, get up and make you coffee and I’m probably just going to stare out the window and watch the mountains.’”