Hager leaving school district
The La Cañada Unified School District recently announced the departure of Patty Hager, associate superintendent of Human Resources, along with news of her replacement, a Conejo Valley director of secondary education.
Hager will leave La Cañada for the Huntington Beach City School District, where she will accept the position of assistant superintendent of Human Resources. Her first day there will be July 1.
At a recent school board meeting, Wendy Sinnette acknowledged Hager’s hard work over the past four years and her ability to handle complex situations and stakeholder groups with finesse.
Though Hager’s departure from LCUSD comes as the district works to finalize negotiations with its teachers union, Sinnette said the associate superintendent was committed to seeing talks through.
“I can assure you that, given her Kentucky pluck, she’ll be dedicated till the end,” Sinnette said in her superintendent’s remarks during last month’s announcement of Hager’s move.
After graduating from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education English and a minor in journalism, Hager moved to Los Angeles and taught at the private school Landmark West for two years, before making the transition to public school education in Culver City.
She went on to earn her master’s degree from Pepperdine University, where she studied education administration. Hager joined La Cañada Unified in the 2011-12 school year, replacing Sinnette, who’d held the position before becoming superintendent.
Board President Andrew Blumenfeld said in an interview Friday Hager has played an integral role in recent district personnel matters, including an overhaul of the district’s teacher evaluation process and helping prepare educators for the implementation of Common Core testing and instruction.
“Patty was 100% committed to making sure the teaching profession, at least in our small corner of the world, was as respected a profession as they come,” Blumenfeld said. “When she spoke, people understood she was coming from a place of knowledge and the recommendations she was making were directly in the interest of the district and, more broadly, the community.”
Not wanting to leave an important position unoccupied, district officials recently welcomed Jeff Davis as Hager’s replacement, voting unanimously to approve his contract in a May 19 meeting. In a release issued last week, Sinnette credited his experience working as the director of secondary education for the Conejo Valley Unified School District since 2008.
“Jeff brings all of the qualities we were looking for in our search for a human resources assistant superintendent,” she stated in the release. “He is knowledgeable of the complexities associated with personnel laws and practices in public education, he has cabinet-level experience and he demonstrates exceptional interpersonal skills, which are essential to successfully navigating this position.”
Blumenfeld said while he did not personally serve on the selection committee to find Hager’s replacement, he was impressed with the new candidate’s interpersonal skills.
“He is an incredibly personable individual,” he said. “He’s also held positions that have given him a breadth of responsibilities that are compatible with what he’ll be doing here.”
