Pocatello superintendent announces retirement

Pocatello School District superintendent Mary Vagner will be retiring in June.

Vagner will stay, in part, to guide the district through another supplemental levy election. The district’s current $8.5 million-a-year levy expires in 2015.

“We are poised to renew our levy in March 2015, for which I will leave the district with another two years of local financial stability,” Vagner wrote in a resignation letter to trustees, obtained by the Idaho State Journal. “The greatest insecurity for the district is state funding for operations and salary and benefits compensation for all employees, both of which we can only influence but not control. I wish I could retire with these issues effectively resolved.”

Vagner’s tenure at the state’s fourth-largest school district was not without controversy.

Last year, the district received national attention when teacher and Pocatello High School girls basketball coach Laraine Cook was fired over a risqué photo she posted on her Facebook page. A state commission found no cause to discipline Cook, who was later reinstated.

Kevin Richert

Kevin Richert

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 30 years of experience in Idaho journalism. He is a frequent guest on "Idaho Reports" on Idaho Public Television and "Idaho Matters" on Boise State Public Radio. Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KevinRichert. He can be reached at [email protected]

Get EdNews in your inbox

Weekly round up every Friday