Board to Vote on New Principal

After a second search, Santa Paula High School officials are set to vote tonight on hiring a new principal of the 105-year-old institution.

Until the Santa Paula Union High School District board actually approves hiring the new head, officials will not release the name. But district Supt. William Brand said the winning candidate was the favored pick among 13 applicants.

“They are all very top quality and it was a difficult decision,” Brand said. “But we think we have made the best decision for Santa Paula High.”

Principal Sandra Barbier resigned in May, and the district began its first search shortly thereafter. But district officials decided to launch a new search in June after interviewing six candidates.

“We didn’t really get a strong enough cross-section of candidates,” Brand said.

Brand said two panels--one made up of local administrators and another comprised mainly of students, parents and community members--interviewed several finalists, including the top candidate.

The new principal, Brand said, will have the challenge of preparing students for the new millennium as freshmen who enter the high school this fall will graduate in the year 2000.

“Some of the things that our graduates are going to be involved in in the area of technology are very complicated and they will need many skills,” Brand said.

The new principal will oversee a faculty and staff of more than 100 at the 1,300-student school. The school, in one form or another, has stood at its North 6th Street site since 1891, but most of the current buildings were constructed in 1939 under one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.