Zeronian Quits Pasadena School District Post

Joseph P. Zeronian, deputy superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District and one-time acting superintendent, will leave the district Oct. 11 to enter private business.

He will become vice president in charge of public finance for Prudential-Bache Securities in Los Angeles.

Zeronian’s departure is expected to have a major impact on the administration of the district, where he has held key positions for more than a decade.

Supt. Phillip B. Jordan said he has not decided how to fill Zeronian’s post as second in command of the 22,000-student district. Until Jordan’s appointment last February, Zeronian served as acting superintendent for nine months and was considered a top contender for the superintendency.

“Joe has enormous and unique strengths and skills,” Jordan said. “I don’t know how we’ll work things out without him. He has served with distinction and deserves credit for the district being fiscally sound.”

Zeronian, who started teaching high school social science and English in Pasadena in 1961, has spent most of his career in the district. He was named associate superintendent for business in 1972. It was a position “I felt unqualified for and didn’t know how to go about it,” he said this week. “But I just did it, and I learned to enjoy new experiences.”

He helped lead the district through a decade of court-ordered busing for desegregation in the 1970s. During that time, the district went through several reshufflings of grades and school boundaries to comply with the law.

As deputy superintendent, Zeronian oversees the district’s business, personnel and high schools and heads a new program called Improving Senior High School Achievement. It imposes new and more stringent requirements on secondary-school students and their teachers.

He served for three years as assistant superintendent in La Canada Unified School District.

In his new job, Zeronian said, he will assist cities, counties and school districts in California with their financial needs during a period in which schools are expected to need new classrooms and buildings.