Pomona District Starts Nationwide Search for a New Superintendent

The Pomona Unified School District is conducting a nationwide search for a successor to Supt. Timothy Graves, who resigned last week because of health problems.

Graves, 50, has been on kidney dialysis for the past 5 months and has had two minor strokes during that period. He also suffers from diabetes. He will be on sick leave until Dec. 31, when his resignation becomes effective.

Resting at home this week after a dialysis treatment, Graves said his resignation does not sit well with him.

‘Very Frustrated’

“I’m very angry, I’m very frustrated, I feel like I’m a quitter,” he said. “My whole life, my fabric, is that you don’t quit. You finish what you start.”

Graves said he decided to leave the post he has held since March, 1984, in the weeks after his stroke last month.

“I just saw how tired I was and how difficult it was to get through a full day, so I tracked that for about a month and came to the big decision,” he said. “I wish they needed a part-time superintendent. . . . But I don’t think that works. You’re either in charge or you’re not.”

Graves said he was pleased with the stability that his tenure has brought to the financially and academically beleaguered district, noting that he has been superintendent longer than any of his three predecessors.

However, he said the district still faces major challenges, particularly in the area of test scores, which he described as being “in the bottom of the barrel in the (San Gabriel) Valley because we’re in an urban setting.” Graves expressed confidence that the district will continue his programs to improve language skills in a district where 27% of the students are not proficient in English.

Graves, who holds a doctorate in curriculum and supervision from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said he plans to seek a part-time position teaching graduate students in education.

“I can’t work full time, but I have to get out of the house,” he said. “I can see myself flopping around the house in a dirty bathrobe, unshaven. I’m too young to do that.”

Biefke Vos Saulino, the district’s deputy superintendent for personnel services and equal opportunity, will serve as acting superintendent until the school board decides on a permanent replacement.