New School District Chief Is Appointed

An educator with a career spanning 24 years as a teacher, university professor, principal and school administrator has been named superintendent of the Ojai Unified School District.

Gwen E. Gross will take over for Supt. Andy Smidt, who is leaving July 1 after 12 years to take a position with the Santa Barbara County Office of Education.

Gross, superintendent of the two-school, 900-student Hermosa Beach City School District, was appointed to the Ojai post Tuesday.

“We are just delighted,” school board President Muriel Lavender said. “She is a remarkable person with an exemplary record in education. She also has a dynamic personality and people are immediately drawn to her.”

Gross was chosen from 34 applicants, five of whom were interviewed by the board, Lavender said.

Lavender said she expected Gross would follow a “participatory and collaborative management style” similar to Smidt’s.

Gross was equally delighted about her new appointment, and said she hoped to collaborate with Smidt for a smooth transition.

“The district has an outstanding reputation,” Gross said. “I intend to visit the district several times over the next few months.”

Gross, who lives in Westlake Village, is married to Jerry Gross, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. They have three children.

She has served as a principal in Colorado Springs, Colo., and in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified and Laguna Beach Unified school districts.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1970 and in 1994 was selected as a member of that school’s Cabinet 99, a group of 99 outstanding women graduates. Gross received a master’s degree in special education from the University of Akron in Ohio and a doctorate in educational administration from Kent State University. She completed post-doctoral work at Harvard University.