Thad Holub left a lengthy career in Pleasant Hill to take a position in Sweet Home as student services director this year.
“We’re excited about having his level of expertise and his background in the field of special education,” said Supt. Tom Yahraes.
Holub succeeds Jennifer Sedlock, who took student services position at the state level in Hawaii.
Holub, 48, grew up in Forest Grove, graduating from high school there in 1986. The 6-foot 6-inch athlete played football at the University of Oregon, spending three years at defensive end and his senior year as a tight end.
He earned a bachelor of arts degree in sociology at UO in 1991, Holub said. He worked for a bit and then returned to UO, earning a master’s degree in communication disorders and sciences in 1995.
He worked with the South Coast Education Service District in Coos Bay as a speech and language pathologist for two years, then took a position in Pleasant Hill School District as a speech pathologist in 1997.
He got into coaching football and then moved to the special education program at the high school in 2006.
The following year he resigned as football coach and became special education director and speech pathologist in Pleasant Hill. After five or six years, he moved to the high school to serve as vice principal while remaining special education director.
When the superintendent took a position with the local education service district, the high school principal did not move up into that position, Holub said, so he began looking for work, although not actively.
When he heard about the student services position opening in Sweet Home, he applied.
“I was kind of looking at building-level administration,” Holub said, but over time, he recognized where his strengths are. He has experience working with individual education plans in special education, Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) programs and homeless students, although he hasn’t worked with talented and gifted students.
As Student Services director, he also supervises district nursing, works with counselors and serves as liaison to the state Department of Human Services.
“In general, I want to make sure we’re identifying the students that need the services,” Holub said.
Sweet Home has a high number of students who identify as having such needs. Holub’s goal is to make sure they get them, to improve graduation rates among them and to improve on existing behavior improvement systems, he said.
The Eugene resident said he is enjoying working in Sweet Home.
“It’s good,” he said. “It’s a nice location.”
He said he doesn’t want to “suck up” too much, but “when I met Tom (Yahraes, superintendent), he kind of won me over.”
He’s done this work before, but now it is on a broader scale, he said.
Holub said he enjoys hunting and fishing when he can, and he enjoys playing guitar.
He has two adult daughters, one attending Portland State University and another attending Lane Community College.