New administrators named at PCY, La Cañada High School as part of larger district reorganization
School staff directories will require editing after La Cañada Unified officials recently announced several administrative changes in the new academic year, including a new principal at Paradise Canyon Elementary and a third assistant principal at La Cañada High School.
Reporting out of a May 18 closed session meeting, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board announced Paradise Canyon Assistant Principal Carrie Hetzel will assume leadership of the school starting July 1, replacing outgoing Principal Debra Cradduck.
After eight years at the school, Cradduck was chosen earlier this month to serve as the district’s executive director of personnel services, a non-cabinet-level position set to begin after the end of this school year.
Hetzel joined the district in 2014 as a teacher on special assignment and was promoted to Paradise Canyon assistant principal two years later.
“She has done an extremely excellent job,” Sinnette said at the meeting. “She has served the community, the parent population and definitely the students.”
Serendipitously, Hetzel’s ascension to the rank of principal freed up an administrative position that district officials granted to La Cañada High School as it enters the long processes of continuing its accreditation through the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
To help ease that transition, officials have decided to bring on Athletic Director Kristina Kalb as a third assistant principal, effective July 1. She joins current assistant principals Kip Glazer and Jon Lyons.
“She surfaced as a natural candidate who knows the clientele, who has strong relationships with parents and excellent relationships with students,” Sinnette said of Kalb.
The school district will actively search for a replacement for Kalb, who worked as an AP government and economics teacher and pep club advisor before adding athletic director to her growing list of titles.
Sinnette said reorganization of the LCUSD administrative team was prompted, in part, by the June 2017 departure of Assistant Supt. of Human Resources Jeff Davis. Though Sinnette herself filled in for him for a year, she said she was happy to bring Cradduck on board.
The superintendent also shared how the district will respond to the impending retirement announcement of Lindi Dreibelbis, chief director of assessment, research and consolidated programs, who recently announced her plan to leave on June 29 after two decades with the district.
Instead of being replaced, Dreibelbis’ job duties will be distributed among current district administrators Anais Wenn, Jim Cartnal and Mark Evans, who will not earn additional pay but whose job descriptions were amended at the meeting. Sinnette thanked her cabinet members for taking on the additional work.
“I can no longer look down the dais and think of these people, in all honesty, as my assistants — they are my associates,” the superintendent said.
Measure LCF projects considered, oversight team named
In a workshop at Friday’s special meeting, board members took a deeper look at how the first series of $149 million of Measure LCF school bond money might be spent at each of the district’s campuses and considered possible timelines for the work.
Harold Pierre, a project manager from Irvine-based LPA Architectural Consulting, told board members the district’s total renovation needs have been estimated at around $245 million, and projects paid for by the bond would be considered “Phase 1.” Funds would be released in five series, spaced about three years apart. The first series will cover about $25.9 million in projects.
Pierre explained how elementary school campuses would need interim portable classrooms during construction periods and said roof work and the installation of lockdown doors at La Cañada High School and perimeter fencing and security improvements at LCUSD’s three elementary schools would likely begin this year, with plans for a high school pool planned for 2020.
When thinking about the timing of the schools’ large-scale modernization work, Pierre said the campuses’ ages were considered. Being an older campus and having the most needs, Palm Crest Elementary seemed a good place to start. There, a new sewer is planned for 2019, and new construction could begin as soon as 2021, with Paradise Canyon possibly following around 2024 and La Cañada Elementary four years after that.
School officials stressed that identifying the projects and needs in LCUSD’s facilities master plan was just a first step — school sites and district stakeholders are invited to participate in how the plan is executed.
“These were just very rough ideas to put on paper what we wanted to do. It’s not necessarily how we’re going to do it,” Evans said.
“We’ll aggressively seek input,” Chief Technology Officer Jamie Lewsadder assured.
Site committees will help planners and architects develop the scope of projects on their campuses and give feedback on interim housing and other ongoing issues.
The board also announced the appointment of eight community members to the district’s Measure LCF Citizen’s Oversight Committee, the group that will be responsible for reviewing and assessing how bond funds are spent.
Members represent several categories of stakeholder groups including businesses, tax and finance, PTA members and citizens at large. They are: Mark Dziak, Josh Epstein, Charles Gelhaar, Larry Gill, Shannon Griffin, Mike Leininger, Timothy O’Hair and Jacob Tujian.
Twitter: @SaraCardine
