Women Show Gain in Top Orange County School Jobs

White males still hold more than 80% of the superintendent posts in Orange County’s 28 school districts, but the number of women holding top administrative jobs is increasing, according to county education officials.

But the number of minorities represented in top administrative jobs in school districts still lags behind, according to Fred Koch, deputy superintendent of schools for the Orange County Department of Education.

Four women now hold superintendent posts in local school districts, and less than two years ago, a Latino hired to head the Anaheim City School District became the only minority school superintendent in Orange County, Koch said.

“When I started working for the department in 1965, there was not one female superintendent in all of Orange County,” Koch recalled.

But white males still hold the top jobs in all 12 of Orange County’s unified school districts, which include grades kindergarten through high school and generally are the larger districts in the county, Koch said.

In the 13 elementary school districts in the county, he said, there are three women superintendents: Patricia White of the Centralia School District based in Buena Park; Diana Peters of the Huntington Beach City School District, and Mary Ellen Blanton of the Yorba Linda School District.

Cynthia Grennan, who heads the Anaheim Union High School District, is the only woman among the superintendents of Orange County’s three union high school districts, Koch said.

The only minority superintendent in Orange County is Mel Lopez, 53, who runs the Anaheim City School District, which has a 57% minority enrollment, consisting mostly of Latino youngsters. Previously, Lopez served five years as superintendent of a union high school district in Pacifica, and before that he was assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Chula Vista Elementary School District in San Diego County.

“I’d like to think the reason I got the job was because of my proven skills, not because I was a minority,” said Lopez, who earns more than $74,000 a year.

“Regardless of one’s ethnicity, you are the superintendent of all children. Whatever you bring to the district is for the benefit of all. Fortunately for me, a good program was already in place in the district,” he said Tuesday.

When he first came to the district, Lopez said, the school population was about 52% Caucasian, but the number of minorities has increased since the end of last year. Lopez said he hopes the district can “beat the odds” in terms of keeping educational standards high in a district with a predominantly minority student population.

Grennan said she has noticed an increase in women administrators within the last eight years. She predicted that a growing cadre of women now serving as assistant principals, principals, directors and assistant superintendents will be candidates for the top school district positions in the future.

But the future looks less rosy for minorities running local school districts, she said.

In 10 unified school districts surveyed Tuesday by The Times, about 88 women now serve as principals, but there are fewer than 10 minority principals.

“We’ve opened doors (for minorities),” Grennan said. “But from my personal standpoint, I don’t see the minority numbers increasing as rapidly.”