Albert Lea Area Schools Superintendent Dave Prescott this morning informed the staff and faculty that he plans to retire June 30, 2009.

He said he wants to give the district and the school board plenty of time to find a replacement and to make a smooth transistion.

“I need to step back and let that go forward,” he said.

Prescott, 62, has been in the school district for 22 years, having come here from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He spent his first nine years as the principal of Sibley Elementary School. He has been in the field of education for 38 years.

His wife, Paula, retired from being an art teacher at Hawthorne Elementary School more than a year ago.

Prescott said he is proud of a stragetic planning process implemented in the mid-1990s. In 1996, it produced a community-based document called Decision Screen, which was renewed in 2004. It said all children can learn but often at different rates and different methods.

“We have found new ways to extend learning to kids,” he said.

He said the district’s policies have sought to stay true to that vision, but mandates such as the federal No Child Left Behind Act don’t fit the vision.

He said he also is proud that the Albert Lea area supported the upgrade of facilities in the late 1990s, which included a new high school. Albert Lea High School was completed in 2000. Since then, the school district has focused on developing technology and curriculum, he said. He also has led the district through successful voter-approved operating levies.

“The community has been very supportive as we build new facilities and ask for operating levies,” he said.

Superintendents tend to hopscotch around the region, a few years here and a few years there. Prescott stayed put. He was offered a job in Little Falls five years ago but turned it down.

“My relationship with the people and the community kept me here,” he said.

In retirement, former superintendents often find work as consultants or as interims in places that need them.

“The plan right now is to not have one,” he said.

Prescott said he intends to visit his daughter in Arizona and son in the Twin Cities.

“Certainly, for the most part, it has been a wonderful 38 years, and that is due to the remarkable people and students that I’ve had the privilege to work with.  The rewards that come in the form of acknowledgements from appreciative people make our work worthwhile and meaningful,” Prescott told staff and faculty in a districtwide e-mail.