180 Days of Learning : LAGUNA BEACH UNIFIED

With one of the toughest years in its history behind it and a new superintendent at the helm, Laguna Beach Unified is turning its attention to the future as school begins this fall.

The top priorities will be basic education and long-range planning, officials said.

“We have to be futurists if you think about it,” Supt. Reed Montgomery said, “because students are the future.”

Trustee Kathryn A. Turner said she is eager to move forward with such priorities as ensuring that students excel in math and science.

“It isn’t that we’re not good, but we could be a lot better,” she said. “There are other high schools in the county that do better than we do, and as far as I’m concerned, we’ve got to catch them. With a district our size and the resources we have, we should be top of the heap.”

The district was mired throughout the past school year in a financial crisis caused in large part by waning property tax revenue and Orange County’s 1994 bankruptcy. Supt. Paul M. Possemato took early retirement last August.

Officials have made several personnel changes in addition to hiring Montgomery. The district has a new business manager, Dena Graves, and a new trustee, Robert J. Whalen.

Planning sessions that began this summer will continue through the school year as district leaders clarify their goals, Trustee Steven Rabago said.

Montgomery said his first task is to ensure that all materials are in place and repairs completed by the time schools reopen Sept. 4.

“There’s been a lot over the last few years that needs to be done that hasn’t,” he said. “We want to have a really strong opening of school.”