OXNARD : Trustees Select New Superintendent

The board of the Oxnard Union High School District has named Bill Studt, director of personnel since 1986, as the district’s new superintendent.

The board of trustees formally assigned Studt to his new post Wednesday night.

Studt, 47, has served as acting superintendent of the district since Ian Kirkpatrick resigned in May. His annual salary will be $85,000, $4,700 less than Kirkpatrick’s, school officials said.

One of the biggest challenges Studt faces is how to deal with overcrowding at several of the district’s six campuses.

Earlier this year, voters rejected a $45-million bond measure that school officials had planned to use to build a seventh high school.

A strong advocate of the bond, Kirkpatrick came under attack for spending $100,000 on the April 14 special election instead of waiting for the regular June or November elections, which would have saved the district money.

Kirkpatrick, citing “philosophical differences” with the five-member board, resigned soon after the bond measure was defeated.

District officials applied last month to the state for financial assistance in constructing a new campus. In the meantime, Studt has suggested that more portable classrooms be used and that school boundaries be adjusted to help relieve overcrowding.

Before joining the Oxnard district, Studt served as assistant superintendent of the Modoc Joint Unified School District in Alturas in Modoc County for six years. He served as a high school dean of students and principal in that district for seven years, and also taught students in Los Angeles, Coalinga and Antelope Valley.