INGLEWOOD : Schools Hire Ex-Principal of Neighboring District

McKinley M. Nash Sr., whose leadership of one South Bay school district ended in controversy four years ago, has been selected as the new superintendent of the neighboring Inglewood Unified School District.

The Inglewood school board agreed Wednesday night to hire Nash after a four-month search and the screening of 31 candidates, a spokesman said.

“He met the requirements that they felt they needed,” said Wilson Riles, an educational consultant and former state schools superintendent who was hired to conduct the search for a superintendent for the 16,000-student district. The board concluded that Nash has the experience and commitment to pull the community together and to work cooperatively with people, Riles said.

Nash will replace George J. McKenna III, whose contract as superintendent was not renewed. Nash’s three-year term will begin July 1, and his salary for the 1994-95 school year will be in the range of $100,000, Riles said.

Inglewood school officials referred all questions to Riles. Nash did not return telephone calls. Nash served for seven years as superintendent of the Centinela Valley Union High School District. He was fired from that post in July, 1990, in a move that sharply divided the district, which had been beset by allegations of racism.

Centinela Valley district trustees in 1992 agreed to pay Nash $150,000 to settle a racial discrimination claim and two contract-related lawsuits.

Nash earlier spent eight years as principal of Evanston Township High School in Illinois, where he also served as assistant superintendent, according to a district press release. He is now a professional services executive for the Assn. of California School Administrators.