Educator Leaving for Post in Santa Ynez

One of the Conejo Valley’s top educators will leave the district to become superintendent of the Santa Ynez Union High School District beginning July 1.

Fred Van Leuven, director of secondary education at the Conejo Unified School District since 1993, helped bring several successful programs to the district, his supervisors said.

They include the International Baccalaureate Program at Newbury Park High School, technology labs at three schools, the Regional Occupational Program at three schools and the AVID program, which encourages more students to go on to college.

“Our role is to provide the most rigorous learning experience so students leave our schools prepared to be productive workers and thinkers in the world,” Van Leuven said.

Van Leuven is leaving the 18,000-student Conejo district at the end of the school year to take over a 1,100-student district in the rolling hills of Santa Barbara County.

Van Leuven said he chose the district, in part, because its goals and attributes are similar to those of Conejo Valley.

“It’s a district with high expectations for students and a community in which education is important,” he said.

Van Leuven’s wife of 19 years, Judy, and his three children, Arthur, 10, Andrew, 8, and Amanda, 6, will join him in a search for a new home in the Santa Ynez area.