Solana Beach Chooses New Schools Superintendent from Irvine System

After making him interview with everyone from the city manager to the school custodian, the Solana Beach School District on Thursday named Irvine school administrator Bruce Givner to replace longtime Supt. Raymond Edman.

Givner, 49, a psychologist and 17-year deputy superintendent for the well-regarded Irvine Unified School District, takes over the reins Oct. 1, but Edman will stay through January to ease the transition, school officials say.

The job will be Givner’s first as a superintendent, although he’s held various administrative posts in Irvine, a district known for its innovative, diverse educational programs and high student test scores.

Givner has also been a school psychologist and assistant college professor at Cal State Long Beach and Pepperdine University.

Although the 22,000-student Irvine district is 15 times larger than the Solana Beach one, Givner said the two systems face the same problems: handling exploding student enrollments and teaching large numbers of kids who don’t speak English.

In both districts, about a quarter of the students speak little or no English, school officials said.

Givner said he chose the smaller district because of its “excellent reputation” and to have closer contact with parents and co-workers. He said he might even remove his office door so people will feel free to come in and tell him their ideas for running the district.

He said he’ll develop goals for the three-school district over the coming months.

School board President Roger S. Kingston said that Givner, a longtime acquaintance of Edman, was selected from a field of 44 applicants after an eight-month nationwide search.

To get the job, Givner went through hours-long interviews with--to hear Kingston tell it--just about everybody in Solana Beach. Four committees had a crack at Givner, including administrators, school employees, community members and the school board.

A committee also traveled to Irvine last week to sound out Givner’s associates about his performance.

“It was a long, arduous, highly professional, well-done search,” Givner said.

His starting pay is $89,900 a year, trustees said, a little less than Edman’s $92,000-a-year salary.

Edman, meanwhile, leaves behind a post he’s held for nearly 15 years, a period when the district grew from 800 to 1,900 students and won national Distinguished Schools awards at Skyline and Solana Vista elementary schools.

“Bruce is ready,” said Edman, 66, who also served as deputy superintendent in Irvine before coming to Solana Beach in 1978. “I’m just pleased he came through as the winning candidate.”

On Thursday, trustees and co-workers praised Edman’s accomplishments, including starting the district’s Child Development Center, which provides care for infants and extended day and preschool programs, and its alternative program--a 60-student non-traditional school with heavy parent involvement in daily lessons, no grades and multigrade classes.

Both programs have been used as models by districts throughout the state, Kingston said.

As Givner takes control, the district is building a fourth school in Fairbanks Ranch and planning a fifth to start construction next year.

Also under way is a three-year “technology plan” that aims to familiarize students and employees with computers, laser discs and other high-tech equipment, a new literature-centered curriculum for grades K-2 and improvements to the district’s science curriculum.