French Named Permanent Chief of Orange Schools

Trustees of the troubled Orange Unified School District ended a wide-ranging search for a permanent superintendent Friday when they named Robert L. French, acting head of the district, to the post.

French, a 63-year-old career educator, will stay on as head of a 26,000-student district that has not had a permanent leader since May, 1992. During the interim, trustees have faced mammoth budget woes, a strike by non-teaching employees, sexual harassment lawsuits and a revolving door of interim superintendents.

School board members, who personally interviewed scores of French’s former employers and colleagues before making the selection, said French’s ability to work with various factions in academic environments was the key to his getting the job.

“He has the capability of taking very difficult problems and explaining them to everyone and bringing them all together,” said board member Robert H. Viviano. “He is an excellent mover of people.”

Union leaders said they have been impressed with French during his short stint as interim superintendent, which began July 6.

“He has been honest with me. He appears to be wanting to solve problems,” said David Reger, president of the teachers union.

“It’s a hard school board to work with. It’s going to take every skill he has to work with this board,” Reger added. “That will be his true test as a superintendent: how he can give direction to the school board.”

French, who was assistant dean for the School of Education at USC before becoming interim superintendent, said he has had no problems with the board.

“I find them very cooperative, very open and very willing to learn,” he said.

French said he has been attracted to the district for years because of the staff and the community. “I had always held Orange on a pedestal,” he said. “For all factions in that community, education is very important to them.”

French came to the interview process with 38 years of educational experience behind him, a resume that helped him win the post over 24 other candidates, said board President Maureen Aschoff.

He began his career as a chemistry teacher in the Whittier Union School District in 1956 and went on to work in Huntington Beach and Fullerton before becoming superintendent of the Piedmont and then the Beverly Hills unified school districts.

The district’s $105-million budget is balanced, but only after trustees made cuts of more than $11 million in the past three years. Its reserve fund is still shy of the state-mandated minimum level by $170,000.

Controversy also continues over three administrators the district accused of sexual harassment in December. The three officials filed countersuits against the district. One administrator, Chief Fiscal Officer Joyce Capelle, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in August to force the district to hold a hearing or drop the case. Those lawsuits are pending. French will have a strategic planning workshop with the school board at 6 p.m. Monday. A preliminary analysis of the current budget has led him to conclude that it is possible to boost salaries of teachers and staff.