Cleveland School Superintendent Chosen to Head Pomona District

Irving Moskowitz, head of the public school system in Cleveland, Ohio, has been hired as superintendent of the 26,000-student Pomona Unified School District. The school board voted 4 to 1 to hire Moskowitz from among 10 applicants who interviewed for the position.

Board member Nancy McCracken said Moskowitz, who has been superintendent of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District since 1986, was the top applicant.

“I found that after listening to him in interviews for five minutes, I realized that this is a man who is a leader,” McCracken said. Representatives of the district’s employee groups who interviewed two finalists selected by the school board also gave strong recommendations for Moskowitz, McCracken said.

Before joining the 8,500-student district in Cleveland, Moskowitz was assistant to the Colorado commissioner of education and spent 10 years as an administrator with the Denver Public School District.

Moskowitz will begin his new job Aug. 1 at an annual salary of $110,000, which reflects his salary in Cleveland, adjusted for the higher cost of living in Southern California, said school district spokeswoman Nancy York. He will replace Biefke Saulino, who has served as interim superintendent since Timothy Graves retired last December because of health problems.