Skills Center director resigns

Peninsula News Network

1/9/06

Clallam County, WA - The administrator of the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center calls it quits, saying he plans to move to Spokane to be closer to his family.

Doctor Clyde Rasmussen, seen here on the right showing Governor Christine Gregoire through the Skills Center, has been the director of the educational operation since 2002, before the center was constructed and opened. He’s also been serving as the Career and Technical Education Director for the Port Angeles School District.

But Rasmussen announced Friday that he’d been leaving the post effective June 30^th, so he and his wife Robin could relocate to Spokane where they can be closer to their children and grandchild. That’s where he’d worked in vocational education before coming to PA.

PA School Superintendent Gary Cohn expressed his appreciation for Rasmussen, saying he’s been “instrumental in the overall program development at the skills center.” That included the opening of the Lincoln Center building, and expansion of the program from nine to fifteen class offerings in addition to satellite programs in Forks and Sequim.

Rasmussen’s departure does come at a point when the Skills Center has been struggling with low enrollment, although there was no mention of those problems in the announcement of his resignation. This winter the Center has been in danger of falling below the enrollment levels where the program is eligible for state funding and assistance.

The superintendents of the participating North Peninsula school districts will convene in early February to discuss “plans and expectations” for finding Rasmussen’s replacement.