Palos Verdes Names New Schools Supt.

A former South Bay resident who heads the Covina school district was named superintendent of the Palos Verdes Unified School District on Wednesday.

Michael W. Caston, 42, is to join the 8,900-student district Aug. 1. He replaces Jack Price, who resigned last October in the wake of public scrutiny stemming from a school board vote to close Miraleste High School. A lawsuit prevented the closure.

Retired Supt. Wayne Butterbaugh has been acting head of the district for the past nine months.

Caston was raised in the South Bay and graduated from Torrance’s South High School in 1967. He began his teaching career in 1971 at Miraleste High School, and he said Wednesday he has long wished to return to Palos Verdes as its school superintendent.

“This has been a long-term professional goal,” he said at a reception attended by district staff members and community leaders.

Caston said he will be paid $115,000 a year--$26,000 more than his salary at Charter Oak Unified School District in Covina, and $33,000 more than Price was earning when he resigned from the Palos Verdes district.

“The salary is a reflection of the housing costs here and what it will take to move here,” Caston said.

Caston, who is married and has two sons, has a bachelor’s degree in biology and education from Northern Arizona University, and a master’s degree and a doctorate from USC, where he specialized in curriculum, instruction and administration.

After leaving his teaching post at Miraleste, Caston served as an elementary school principal in the Westminster Elementary District. He later moved to the Capistrano Unified School District, where he was an intermediate school assistant principal and principal.

He joined the Charter Oak district in 1980 as director of personnel. He quickly became an assistant superintendent and, in 1985, was named superintendent of the 6,000-student district.

Caston said he is aware of the Palos Verdes district’s turmoil, which placed Price at the center of a bitter two-year battle between the school board and a parents group that has fought to keep Miraleste High School open. Critics of the district also have questioned a number of management practices.

Caston said he intends to institute open-door policies that he hopes will help resolve the disputes. “It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to take time, but with strong communication I think it can be done,” he said.