DEVOTED TO DISTRICT
Lagunitas school trustee marks 50 years of service
Although he has been a West Marin construction contractor for decades, Richard Sloan is best known as an architect — that is, the creative force behind Lagunitas School District’s unique, it- takes- a-villagelike culture.
Sloan, 85, of Woodacre was sworn in Friday for what marks his 50th year of service on the district’s board of trustees. Except for a short hiatus in the 1980s — when he ran a brief but contentious, uproarious and unsuccessful campaign for Tamalpais Union High School District trustee — he has served continuously on the school board since 1971.
“I have advocated parent involvement from day one,” he said Tuesday. “The fact that I support the parents’ role in their children’s education, and them having choices in how that is offered, has contributed, I think, to my having been reelected.”
He has been reelected
11 times; eight of those cycles were contested. He is Marin’s longest serving school trustee.
“Richard is a force of nature,” said John Carroll, the district’s superintendent. “He is one of the most valuesdriven trustees I have ever known. His commitment to local control and parent choice is legendary.”
Under Sloan’s leadership, Lagunitas schools have embraced and incorporated a diverse menu of educational styles. Although some transitions were rocky, parents at the two-campus, 240-student, K- 8 district have, for the most part, been given the choice of which options work best for them.
“His vision was that traditional education could co- exist on the same campus as Montessori and Waldorf programs and thereby enrich the education for all students, while giving parents a true choice in a public setting,” Mary Jane Burke, the county schools superintendent, said in a 2015 letter to the “Marin Trustee of the Year” selection committee.
“He has been a champion of ‘ local control,’ not just as a concept but as a practice.”
“While not everyone agrees with Sloan on educational issues, few would doubt his sincerity in espousing those views, no matter the cost to him or his reputation,” Burke said in the letter. “His work as a trustee has made a profound difference in the lives of generations of students.”
Among his many contributions, Sloan has helped
the district with three playground projects — the latest being the one at the district’s upper campus, completed in 2018.
During construction, Sloan had a stroke, but was able to get quick emergency help thanks to school staff. Except for some vision impairment, Sloan has mostly recovered, Carroll said.
“It’s his masterpiece,” Carroll said of the newest playground. “It’s so creative.”
In an earlier playground project, the state said the district volunteers were not authorized to work on it without a certified safety supervisor. Sloan, who at that point already had years of construction experience, said he would get the certification himself.
He signed up for a course in Los Angeles and got certified. The playground was built under his supervision.
Another bureaucratic obstacle that the district overcame — with Sloan’s help — was when the state enacted the Field Act, which governs earthquake safety at public school buildings. The act disqualified an older districtowned elementary school building along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, at the front of the main school campus.
Some district officials said they would build a new elementary school building in the rear of the main campus and tear down the older one. Sloan, however, was one of those who deemed that it worth saving. He and others turned the building into an art center, exempt from Field Act regulations.
The art center became a cultural center and is now the San Geronimo Valley Community Center — the
hub of the area.
Katherine Sanford, a Lagunitas teacher and school parent, said Sloan “is a man who walks his talk.”
“He invests in his community and is a true public servant,” she said.
When Sanford took her eighth- grade class to Alabama for a civil rights trip in 2018, “Richard was so excited and supportive that he read the same books the students were reading to prepare them for the journey,” she said.
“In many ways, he is the embodiment of the creativity and progressive thinking that shape the Lagunitas School.”
Sloan, a staunch political progressive, grew up in Berkeley and graduated in 1960 from University of California at Berkeley with a degree in psychology. He has lived in various San Geronimo Valley communities since 1964.
He championed anti-war and civil rights movements in his earlier years. He was a George McGovern delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1972 in Miami.
But politics has always come second to his devotion to schools and education.
A father of three children from two marriages,
Sloan said the “best educational environment is when the home and school are in partnership.” He believes the district’s success is due to its support of all families in the school community and allowing differing viewpoints to co- exist peacefully.
“We have a high reputation, but I guess it depends on who you ask,” he said. “I guess there are some people who might think we’re too permissive.”
When Sloan ran for Tam district trustee, he opposed a plan by the San Anselmo police chief to place undercover narcotics officers at Sir Francis Drake High
School in San Anselmo.
Sloan spoke about his opposition at campaign talks at all three comprehensive district high schools — Drake, Redwood and Tamalpais. At Redwood, a reporter for the school’s newspaper, the Redwood Bark, covered his talk and ran a story. The headline, Sloan says, indicated that he supported drugs in schools.
Sloan, a former probation officer, said he never said anything of the kind — and would have never supported increased drug use in teens. But it was too late. The seed had been planted.
“I won the valley and two precincts in Fairfax,” Sloan said, with a rueful chuckle. “I lost 10-to-1 in Tiburon, Belvedere and Ross.”
The Lagunitas district still has an open classroom, a Montessori program and a middle school that receives seventh- and eighthgrade students from both of the elementary programs. The Waldorf program was ended several years ago — with Sloan casting the sole dissenting vote on the board.
“He is unwavering in his dedication to ensuring that all students are seen as individuals with unique talents, interests and abilities,” Carroll said of Sloan. “He has repeatedly demonstrated courage in making difficult choices with the best interests of students and the community in mind.”