Latino Urged for Top School Job
A community activist group is planning to urge Anaheim Union High School District trustees to fill the vacant superintendent post with a Latino educator.
Solevar Community Development Corp., a nonprofit Latino empowerment group based in Anaheim, will request that the Board of Trustees delay naming a replacement until a suitable Latino educator can be recruited.
The board, however, is conducting an in-house search for a new superintendent and plans to interview the eligible candidates--none of whom are Latino--Thursday afternoon.
“You can’t say our people aren’t qualified, because they are,” said Seferino Garcia, executive director of Solevar.
Garcia, noting that the district’s enrollment is predominantly Latino, said that a Latino superintendent could serve as a role model for the students.
The former superintendent, Cynthia F. Grennan, retired Feb. 7 after more than three decades with the district. Grennan’s successor might be named by the board during its public meeting Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The candidates are assistant superintendents Rita S. Newman and F. Jock Fischer, and district directors Jan Billings, Craig Haugen and David Steinle. Newman has served as acting superintendent since Grennan’s departure.
Solevar was formed four years ago to improve the community by battling gang violence, drug abuse and other social ills.
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