New Simi Schools Chief Wins Over Audience at Welcoming

One well-timed joke and new Simi Valley schools Supt. Joyce C. Mahdesian already had wowed her audience.

On Tuesday, the 60-year-old Mahdesian was formally introduced to the community in a half-hour chat with about 40 teachers and principals at school district headquarters.

Mahdesian acknowledged she was accepting a “challenging” role as head administrator for the often divided Simi Valley Unified School District board, which last month hired her on a split vote.

“We’re so happy to have someone experienced, someone successful, someone with proven leadership ability, vision and the team-building ability we so desperately need,” school board President Janice DiFatta said in introducing the new schools chief, who starts Oct. 1.

Mahdesian’s deadpan quip: “And in my spare time, I walk on water.”

The teachers and principals laughed and clapped. She had their attention.

Her next pronouncement: That she had no grand pronouncement on her first 100 days in office. Rather, she would focus on getting the school doors open in September and bringing her often split five-member board together.

Mahdesian made it clear she plans to avoid the missteps made by the 20,000-student district’s last two permanent superintendents, Tate Parker and Dan Flynn, both of whom left within months of their hiring.

Mahdesian said she and her husband, Armen, a retired Los Angeles Unified School District administrator, want to buy a house in Simi Valley soon. That would avoid problems faced by Parker, who was criticized for living out of town. And she also vowed to use her administrative experience to pull the school board together, which Flynn could not accomplish.

“You have to start with honesty, integrity and the fact that the board and the superintendent all want to come together for the achievement of our students,” she said when asked how she would bring peace to the district. “There’s this misconception that conflict is bad. Not necessarily. Conflict is when reasonable people have differences of opinion.”

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Hired last month from the Northern California school district of Livermore, Mahdesian is taking over an office that has been occupied by six full-time and interim superintendents in the past eight years. She began her career as an elementary teacher in Simi Valley 28 years ago.

During her chat Tuesday, even union representatives who have criticized previous schools chiefs said they were optimistic about the new hire, a mother of three grown children who counts ballroom dancing among her hobbies.

Chances are, the ability to step swiftly, turn deftly--and follow someone else’s lead--will serve Mahdesian well as she waltzes into her new job. She will be paid $140,000 a year, up from $118,000 at her last job.

“Her qualifications are just phenomenal,” said teachers’ union President Ginny Jannotto, who sat on the district’s supervisor selection advisory committee. “I’m still somewhat stumped that someone with those qualifications will take this position here.”

Like her short-lived predecessor Flynn, Mahdesian was hired on a 3-2 vote. Trustee Norman Walker said he opposed her because he believes the new superintendent may be looking for a $22,000 raise to boost her retirement pay. And trustee Caesar O. Julian said he objected that the board did not finish its selection process.

Walker, a Baptist minister, cited work commitments for his absence at Tuesday’s get-to-know-you session. But he said he harbored no hard feelings toward Mahdesian, even though he voted against hiring her. Work also prevented Julian, a doctor, and trustee Diane Collins, a Los Angeles teacher, from attending.

“I don’t think there’s any war here,” he said. “We disagreed and there was voting. The majority acted. I’ve been in this situation before as a member of the majority and as a member of the minority.”

In the 13,000-student Livermore school district, Mahdesian has earned high marks for introducing new technology, bringing diverse interests together and earning the district a nod from Money magazine as one of the top 100 school systems in affordable communities. She also worked with her board to slice $7 million from Livermore’s budget during the recession of the early 1990s.

But her tenure was not without controversy.

A debate over how to teach math erupted at one Livermore middle school--with teachers and the principal fighting over whether to group students by ability.

Middle school teacher and parent Dianne Foster, who favored grouping and a more traditional approach to math, said she was concerned about Mahdesian’s devotion to “outcome-based” education.

“The teachers and parents were upset with the direction the curriculum was going” under Mahdesian, Foster said. “It was, ‘Rather than having kids learn their multiplication tables, let’s have them use a calculator’. . . . It was just the opposite of back-to-basics.”

Without offering specifics, Julian said he had heard other serious complaints about the new superintendent.

“I hope all the negatives I’ve heard about are lies,” he said Tuesday. “Maybe when I know her better, I’ll have more positive things to say.”

Before joining the Livermore district in 1989, Mahdesian served as schools chief in the San Mateo and Oakley districts. Between 1970 and 1982, she worked in Simi Valley, moving from a teacher at Vista elementary to a reading specialist at Township elementary to an assistant principal at Garden Grove elementary and a principal at Santa Susana elementary.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in education and an administrative credential from Cal State Northridge. Her doctorate in administration comes from USC.