HUNTINGTON BEACH : 4-Year Contract for Schools Chief OKd

The Huntington Beach Union High School District board on Monday unanimously approved a four-year contract for Supt. David Hagen.

Hagen, who became the district’s chief executive Aug. 1, will earn $98,278 a year, the same salary Lawrence Kemper was receiving when he resigned last month as superintendent.

The three trustees who were present approved Hagen’s contract before beginning a closed-session meeting.

Upon Kemper’s announcement that he would be leaving to become superintendent of the Baldwin Park Unified School District in Los Angeles County, the board swiftly promoted Hagen, 46, then assistant superintendent for business services.

The board is expected next month to detail its plans for hiring Hagen’s successor. Among other matters, trustees have yet to decide whether they will conduct a nationwide search or hire a district employee.

Hagen is a 22-year district veteran who started as a teacher at Fountain Valley High School. He later became that school’s principal, then moved into administrative posts in the district’s central offices.

Hagen has in recent years been instrumental in guiding the district through difficult financial times. Because of state spending cuts and falling enrollment, the trustees have been forced to make spending cuts of more than $14 million during the past five years, $2.4 million of that last April.

The financial picture for the district is similarly dismal for the coming school year. Projections for the six-school district foresee a shortfall that could be as large as $3.5 million, or 5% of its budget. A property fee that would have helped eliminate some of that deficit was recently repealed after it became the object of fierce public opposition.

Unless the district finds other ways to raise money this year, Hagen and the board next spring will be considering cuts such as eliminating nurses and psychologists and closing a swimming pool.