Laguna schools administrator resigns

Laguna Beach Unified School District’s director of human resources and communications has resigned, school board president William Landsiedel announced at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

Gerald Vlasic’s resignation was effective July 1.

Vlasic, who had worked at the district for a year, was not at the last board meeting June 25 and an email to him July 1, had an automatic reply of, “I am away from the office.”

Landsiedel gave the news coming out of closed session and did not elaborate on why Vlasic resigned when asked later in the meeting by parent Sheri Morgan.

“I can only read the statement based on what my attorney told me,” Landsiedel said.

Supt. Sherine Smith also declined to comment Wednesday on why Vlasic resigned.

The board approved Kathy Kessler to fill in as interim director of human resources beginning Wednesday.

Kessler was former superintendent of Huntington Beach City School District and prior to that was an assistant superintendent of human resources for 12 years, according to a 2010 Huntington Beach Independent story.

Kessler has worked in education for 41 years, according to Laguna Beach Unified’s human resources technician Melinda Grace.

Kessler’s contract does not exceed 60 days and the district will post the job opening in the near future, Smith added.

Before coming to Laguna Beach Unified, Vlasic was principal at Kaiser Elementary School in Costa Mesa.

Vlasic was an elementary school principal in Capistrano Unified School District from 2003 to 2009, district spokesman Marcus Walton said.