HUNTINGTON BEACH : District Holds Off on Hiring Top Officials

The Huntington Beach City School District will operate for at least half the coming school year with temporary replacements filling three top administrative posts, including the superintendent’s.

The board this week decided to spend at least the first semester of the 1990-91 school year recruiting candidates to replace Supt. Diana Peters, who resigned last month, and two assistant superintendents who recently departed.

Trustees say they do not want to hastily hire administrators to fill three of the district’s top four posts. In addition, the board agreed to wait until after the Nov. 6 election, when three trustees face reelection, before hiring successors for Peters, Ronald Brown and Rebecca Turrentine.

The board also agreed to choose a consultant Sept. 11 to guide the district in hiring a new superintendent. Officials say it may be a year before a new superintendent is appointed.

Peters, who spent four years as superintendent, resigned after a rift developed between her and board members. Brown retired this month to accept a position with a statewide school administrators’ association, and Turrentine resigned to take a job with the Bellflower Unified School District.

Administrative duties will be redistributed among interim administrators and other officials, district spokeswoman Catherine Wheeler said.

Gary Burgner, formerly assistant superintendent of business services, is serving as interim superintendent.

The board on Tuesday appointed John Conniff, manager of special projects, to replace Turrentine as interim assistant superintendent of educational services.

Trustees decided not to appoint a full-time interim replacement for Brown, who had been assistant superintendent of personnel. Instead, Conniff will also serve as the district’s chief negotiator in talks with its two employee unions, which had been Brown’s main duty. The board will hire a part-time consultant to attend to other personnel matters.

“I don’t question these people’s abilities at all,” board President Sherry Barlow said. “I don’t have any concerns at all that things will go smoothly and be well organized.”