Laguna Unified Rocked by New Departure at Top

Even as school trustees met Thursday night to try to find a new superintendent, another top director of the beleaguered Laguna Beach Unified School District quit, the third loss in the district’s tiny management team this week.

The resignation of Special Services Director Nancy Hubbell is another blow for this district, which now has a management staff consisting of one administrator, four principals and two assistant principals.

Hubbell, 46, said her departure has nothing to do with Supt. Paul M. Possemato’s having stepped down earlier this week or with the district’s current problems. She said she is taking another job.

Hubbell, a psychologist, worked with children who have special needs, counseled troubled teens and did suicide intervention for the district. She also helped direct the Committee for Children and Youth, the project launched by Possemato and Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr., to help keep children from going astray.

“She has the respect of a lot of people,” said Nancy Vaughan, Possemato’s administrative assistant. “I think parents will really feel a loss when they find out.”

One parent who was on hand when the trustees voted 4 to 0 to accept Hubbell’s resignation said, “I just hate to see good people go, especially now,” said Kevin Donavan. “It’s awful.”

Weary school trustees, who met for the third time this week, had called the special session to get reorganized and to consider hiring an interim superintendent to replace Possemato, who cleared the last of his things out of his office on Thursday.

One of the possible candidates for interim superintendent is Assistant Supt. Robert Klempen. Board members said earlier in the day they intended to select an interim superintendent from the current staff.

Board members also plan to hire a controller to oversee the business office and help deal with the budget crisis.

Pressured by parents who are angry about an $800,000 shortfall in the 1996-97 budget, Possemato offered to retire at the close of an emotional meeting late Tuesday. The board fired Chief Financial Officer Terry Bustillos on Monday.

With the community increasingly edgy about the changes in the district, the board has been scrambling to restore confidence and to patch together a new administrative team.

The district has been struggling with a financial crisis that school officials blame on shrinking property tax revenue and losses incurred in the 1993 firestorm and the county bankruptcy.

Parents, administrators and teachers worked for months to patch together what they thought was a balanced budget. Ultimately, the board slashed about $1 million from the spending plan, a painful process that resulted in layoffs and lost programs.

The most recent crisis erupted last week when a consultant hired by the city revealed the shortfall, which must be resolved before the board can offer a balanced budget to the county, due Sept. 8. School officials say a $650,000 bookkeeping error, combined with unexpected expenses, brought the shortfall to $800,000.

Trustee Kathryn Turner said Thursday she was “optimistic and very confident” that the district will resolve its problems.