HUNTINGTON BEACH : Assistant Principals Hired for 4 Schools

The Ocean View School District board this week hired the district’s first assistant principals, who will be assigned to the four campuses that will become middle schools this fall.

The new administrators, approved by the Board of Trustees Tuesday night, are Christine Harrison, an assistant principal at Parks Junior High School in Fullerton; Lon Hyland, an administrative assistant at Spring View School in Huntington Beach; Steven Keller, an assistant principal at Rancho Middle School in Rancho Cucamonga, and Jeffrey LaVal, a regional assistant principal in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Harrison, a former Ocean View teacher, will be assigned to Vista View School when it becomes a middle school in September. Hyland will remain at Spring View School, Keller is headed for Mesa View School, and LaVal will assume the second-in-charge post at Marine View School.

The assistant principals’ responsibilities will include counseling students, coordinating student guidance and activities and helping oversee educational programs, Supt. Monte McMurray said.

Their salaries will range from $51,655 to $55,461 for a 10-month work year.

The four assistant principals were chosen from a field of 34 applicants from throughout the state, McMurray said.

Ten of those candidates were interviewed by two Ocean View panels of principals, administrators from outside the district, teachers and non-teaching employees. Those panels recommended six finalists to McMurray, who narrowed them down to four for the board’s consideration.

The new positions were created because the district is changing the four schools to sixth-through-eighth-grade middle schools as part of its sweeping reorganization plan, which takes effect in the fall.

In addition to turning those campuses into middle schools, the plan will close Crest View and Haven View schools and convert the remaining 11 sites to elementary schools for kindergarten through fifth-grade.

District officials say the $2.5-million plan will enable Ocean View to improve educational programs. Because more teachers and facilities will be concentrated at fewer schools, the district can make the fullest use of its available resources, officials say.

Many parents in the district have opposed the change from the outset more than a year ago, however, charging that it will divide neighborhoods, undermine solid existing programs and cost too much.