BREA : Interim Principal Is Hired

A former Fullerton Joint Union High School District administrator was hired Monday night to serve as Brea Olinda High School’s interim principal until a permanent replacement is found.

John Seeland, who retired from the Fullerton district as assistant superintendent of business services in 1991, will begin his new job Jan. 3. He succeeds John Johnson.

Johnson recently was transferred to the Brea Olinda Unified School District office following a grade-changing scandal that involved the tampering of hundreds of students’ transcripts. Letter grades were changed to pass notations, course titles were switched and double credit was awarded for classes taken to improve grades on hundreds of student transcripts.

Johnson failed to tell his superiors about the illegal and widespread grade changes.

He will begin his new job as director of support services in the district office Jan. 3. His duties will include overseeing student expulsions and curriculum and instruction programs, Supt. Peggy Lynch said.

Johnson’s annual salary--about $73,000--will remain the same, Lynch said. She said Seeland will serve as principal for about four months, making $302 per day.

Seeland, 61, has experience serving as an interim principal, officials said. He was interim principal at Fullerton High School for about three months until the Fullerton district found a permanent principal in September.

Seeland, of Idaho, was hired as a counselor in a Fullerton district high school in 1963 and became principal of Sonora High in 1978. He served as Troy High School’s principal from 1983 to 1988, when he became assistant superintendent.

Lynch said she will be accepting applications for a permanent Brea Olinda High School principal for the next few months.