Rob Morrow, 60, announced his retirement as superintendent of the Tahoma School District on February 13.

“I’ve been 37 years in the Tahoma School District and I think it may be time to pursue some other personal and professional goals,” Morrow said.

The news was broken to the school board before everyone else in November 2017,.

Morrow has been in the Tahoma School District as principal, but in 2013 the he was asked to step up in a different role.

“I was asked by the former superintendent and the school board if I would consider the position and decided to take it after having a conversation with the school board,” he said.

Morrow said he misses working in schools as principal.

“I like every opportunity I have to go to schools. That’s one thing I kind of miss about being principal, was being in a school everyday,” Morrow said. “So every time I get a chance or get invited to come to a school or a function, or something that is happening, then that’s a good day.”

Looking back at his time as superintendent, Morrow said he’s going to miss the people. He said he worked with great staff, teachers and principals.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve done, we’ve built a quarter billion dollars worth of schools over the last four years and remodeled, and the team we’ve had working on this has done a great job,” he said. “We’ve brought the projects in under budget and gave the community what they had expected and that’s not what I’ve done, that’s what our team has done, which I think is fantastic.”

Morrow said he had a very reliable staff that helped him on during his time as superintendent.

““I’ve been so lucky that the previous superintendent left a really quality team of people here who know what they’re doing and do an excellent job and the school district is fortunate enough to have them,” he said. “So they’ve made my transition to this job a lot easier.”

For the next few months, Morrow said he is going to focus on getting the Education Programs and Operations Levy passed and to make sure the board has everything they need before he retires.

“We weren’t successful on our levy the first time around and I want to support the board in making sure we have a person to take over (as superintendent),” he said.

Looking forward to his time after he retires, Morrow isn’t sure what he will do.

“You know I haven’t even thought about that, I’m just 100 percent focused on getting the levy passed and helping the board get a new superintendent,” he said.

The board is currently in the process of hiring a firm to help them with the process of hiring a new superintendent, Morrow said.