Supt. Job Offered to Bay Area Veteran

Theresa A. Daem, the superintendent of the San Bruno Park School District in Northern California, was asked Thursday to run the local school district.

The official offer from the Laguna Beach Unified School District board was made at the end of the day in San Bruno. School board members and others visited the district, near San Francisco International Airport and just south of the city, to check Daem’s references and meet members of the San Bruno school community.

Daem, who earns $93,118 a year, has been San Bruno’s superintendent for more than six years. She may make her first public appearance in Laguna Beach at the school board’s next meeting, on Tuesday, when her appointment will be up for approval, said Kathryn A. Turner, president of the school board.

Contract negotiations between Daem and the school district have just begun and are not expected to be completed by Tuesday, Turner said.

Interviews in San Bruno began at 10 a.m. Thursday and lasted until after 4 p.m., she said.

“I think it was helpful because it reinforced the selection [of Daem] for a number of people,” Turner said.

In San Bruno, Daem runs a 2,900-student district of six elementary schools and one middle school. Last week, San Bruno voters passed a $30-million bond initiative to refurbish its schools, all of which are more than 30 years old. Daem has been credited with the success of the referendum, which passed by more than a two-thirds majority. It was the first school bond plan to be approved by city voters since 1964.

Daem, 51, will replace Reed Montgomery, who was fired by the school board Feb. 3 after taking an unauthorized medical leave and failing to perform the duties of his job, school board members said. He plans to sue the district for the remainder of his contract, which he estimates to be worth about $300,000 in salary and benefits.