IRVINE : School Board Selects New Superintendent

The Irvine Unified School District Board of Education has unanimously agreed on a replacement for former Supt. David E. Brown but will not reveal the identity of the successor until next week.

After a closed session Monday, trustees announced the selection of a new superintendent to replace Brown, who left in October to head the Napa Valley Unified School District in Northern California. They said they will release the person’s name June 12, after a visit to the candidate’s school district.

“We’re excited and enthused, and we hope the community will rally around the new leadership,” school board President Tom Burnham said. Burnham was a consultant with the executive search firm that recruited Brown for the district in 1987.

Two Irvine Unified deputy superintendents were candidates for the job, but the school board chose a candidate from outside the 21,700-student district. The person selected is currently superintendent of another Southern California public school district, trustees said.

District representatives and local residents plan to tour the candidate’s school district on Friday. Contract negotiations with the candidate also must be concluded before the selection becomes final, school board member Mary Ellen Hadley said.

“I’m real encouraged that we have an outstanding finalist,” said Hadley, who was a school board member when Brown was hired to succeed the district’s founding superintendent, A. Stanley Corey.

The new superintendent will inherit a challenge. Brown’s position has been open since before Orange County declared bankruptcy on Dec. 6.

Because of losses resulting from the collapse of the county investment pool, the district has been forced to cut $2.2 million from the $100-million budget for the next school year and has sent notices of potential layoff to 120 teachers, 95 classified employees and 30 administrators.

District officials estimate $12 million in losses from the pool collapse, including the cost of financing new debt.