WESTMINSTER : School District Picks New Superintendent

Gail G. Wickstrom has been selected as superintendent of the Westminster School District, district officials announced this week.

Wickstrom, 49, is currently assistant superintendent of educational services at Torrance Unified School District. She was selected from among 40 candidates for the job and will begin work July 1.

“I’m very excited to be working in Orange County,” said Wickstrom, a resident of Corona. “I see that Westminster has a fine school system and has been very responsive to the needs of youngsters in the past. I look forward to working with all of the fine people there in raising the level of instruction.”

Wickstrom replaces interim Supt. Keith W. Lawson, who had been filling the position since 1989. Lawson, who has worked as a teacher and administrator in the district for 30 years, will return to his previous position as assistant superintendent of educational services.

Wickstrom is a native of Tyler, Tex., holds a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Texas and a doctorate in school management from La Verne University.

“We’re really excited to have her joining the district,” said Westminster School Board President Ron Morgan. “She is well-known and recognized throughout the state as an education leader, and we are fortunate to have found her.”

She becomes the first female superintendent in the district’s history and will be one of three women in charge of one of the county’s 27 public school districts. The others are Patricia Clark White of Centralia School District in Buena Park and Cynthia F. Grennan of the Anaheim Union High School District, according to the Orange County Department of Education.

The district, which has 8,355 students, consists of 14 elementary schools, two middle schools and one intermediate school. Enrollment is expected to increase by about 400 students next year, district officials said.