SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Miami Educator to Head School District

A longtime Miami educator has been hired as Capistrano Unified School District’s superintendent.

James Fleming, associate superintendent for district management and community relations in Dade County, Fla., will replace retiring Capistrano Supt. Jerome R. Thornsley on July 1.

As superintendent, Fleming, 48, will become the chief executive of the 26,709-student district, which has a $160-million budget and includes San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point and part of Mission Viejo. A district source said Fleming’s annual salary will be $117,000.

“This is an exciting opportunity,” Fleming said. “Capistrano Unified School District has a reputation for excellence, and I am very eager to begin.”

Capistrano Board of Trustees President Paul B. Haseman said Fleming was the unanimous choice of the seven-member board. More than 50 candidates applied for the job after Thornsley last fall announced his intention to retire after 16 years with the district.

“We had an instantaneous rapport with him and felt comfortable with him,” Haseman said. “He has outstanding intellectual skills and communication skills, and was very capable in expressing his philosophy of education.”

Fleming has held his current position for most of the past three years, except for a two-month stint as Dade County’s interim superintendent. That district, with 292,000 students, is the nation’s fourth largest. His responsibilities included curriculum development, public relations, parent involvement, security, and student activities and athletics.

In 27 years with the Dade County district, he also served as director of management development, director of community relations, a principal, an assistant principal and a social studies teacher.

Fleming was born in New York City, and his family moved to Miami in 1949. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Miami and a doctorate from Nova University in Florida. He and his wife, Lilly, have six children.

Fleming drew praise from Murray Sisselman, president of the United Teachers of Dade County, Miami’s teachers’ union. “We have had a great relationship and a great rapport,” Sisselman said. “In his present position, he has done an excellent job of making each school’s staff, teachers and parents feel as if they are part of the decision-making process. He is a unique and hard-working individual who is knowledgeable about current trends in education.”

Ric Stephenson, president of the Capistrano Unified Education Assn., the local teachers’ union, said he has not met Fleming, but was pleased to learn that his Miami counterpart had praised Fleming.