School Leader Finalist for San Diego Position

One of south Orange County’s leading school administrators may leave his post to head a San Diego County school district, officials said Monday.

Thomas R. Anthony, Capistrano Unified’s associate superintendent of secondary schools, is one of two candidates being considered for the superintendent position at Grossmont Union High School District, a suburban school system in eastern San Diego County.

The other Grossmont candidate is Thomas A. Godley, the superintendent of the San Marino Unified School District and formerly a Newport-Mesa Unified administrator.

San Diego school officials said both finalists were selected from a nationwide pool of 29 applicants. Both will undergo a final round of interviews with Grossmont teachers, community members and school board trustees Thursday. A decision will be announced in two weeks, San Diego County Supt. of Schools Rudy Castruita said.

If selected, Anthony will leave 37,000-student Capistrano Unified for a district of 22,000 high school students, one of the largest secondary school districts in the state.

Anthony, 51, has spent the past 11 years at Capistrano Unified as a district administrator and principal at Capistrano Valley High School.

“I would be sad, really sad” to leave Orange County if given the San Diego job, Anthony said. “I’ve developed a lot of great friendships with administrators, teachers and students here.”