IRVINE : Search Begins for New Superintendent

The school board praised departing Supt. David E. Brown during his final school board meeting last week and set the wheels in motion to find his replacement.

Trustees hired an executive search firm to survey the community. Board members also named Deputy Supt. Dean Waldfogel to serve as acting superintendent after Brown’s departure.

Waldfogel, one of three deputy superintendents in the Irvine Unified School District, said he is not a candidate to replace Brown. Deputy superintendents Susan Long and Paul Reed have indicated a preliminary interest in the job.

Brown, hired in 1987 to succeed A. Stanley Corey, is leaving to take the top job at Napa Valley Unified School District.

“It has been an absolute pleasure,” Brown said Tuesday night, complimenting administrators, trustees and district employees. “No one’s benefited more than I have from my IUSD experience.”

School board President Michael B. Regele gave Brown kudos for his leadership style. “You pushed others forward so they could shine instead of pushing yourself forward,” Regele said. In the wake of Brown’s departure, the school district will pay $9,600 to Management Analysis and Planning Associates of Berkeley to develop a profile of what community members want in a new superintendent.

“The process may stop there,” Regele said, indicating that the board might not seek candidates from outside the 17,500-student school district. The school board, which has two incumbents running for reelection, plans no additional action on replacing Brown until after the Nov. 8 election.