As school returned to session on the hill last month, Dr. Don Austin took over as superintendent for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.
“My excitement is the enormous potential of this district to be truly a world class model,” Austin said in an interview last week. “…we have great kids, a dedicated staff and resources that not everybody gets.”
Austin most recently served for two years as assistant superintendent of educational services at Huntington Beach Unified School District which serves about 16,000 students, nine schools and four feeder districts.
“I feel like he is already going to extraordinary lengths, and he just began two weeks ago,” said Mitzi Cress, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School principal. “He’s been extremely visible and present in the community and at the schools.”
The PVPUSD Board of Education announced its hiring decision on August 6, just after they voted unanimously to approve a four-year contract with Austin.
Austin said the hiring process was a reciprocal one.
“I spent a lot of time researching the district and talking to people in the community,” he said. “Both sides have to feel comfortable with the match, and we did.”
Last school year, after Walker Williams announced that he would retire as of July 1, 2015, PVPUSD began its search for a new superintendent. The district hired the Cosca Group, an educational consulting firm that specializes in recruiting superintendents; the process took six months.
The hiring process has stirred a bit of controversy. Williams is not scheduled to retire until the end of the school year, yet Austin is already on board.
“Mr. Walker Williams stepped down as Superintendent effective August 11th, the day that Dr. Austin’s contract began,” said Erin LaMonte, president of the board, in an email last week. “This was part of the amended contract for Mr. Williams who is now serving as Chief Executive Officer-Instructional Projects reporting [to] the Board of Education until his contract ends in June of 2015.”
Williams is beiing paid $230,829 annually. Austin’s salary is $235,000.
Bill Lamm, a resident, grandfather and previous member of the library board, has spoken out against the decision.
“Getting all that money to do ‘special projects’ seems like a waste of taxpayer money,” said Lamm in an interview last week. “We can’t have enough teachers yet we can pay those two men half a million dollars, combined.”
The board has emphasized the need for “thoughtful transition.”
“It’s a lot of money but that was a decision of the board,” Cress said. “This is a unique school district; we have very high expectations and need continuity of that.”
