Section Chooses Principal to Be New Commissioner

Jim Staunton, Huntington Beach High School’s principal since 1991, was announced Monday as the eighth commissioner of the Southern Section.

Staunton, 50, who has spent most of his 28 years in education in the Huntington Beach Union High School District, will assume his duties Sept. 1. He will succeed Dean Crowley, who is retiring after six years.

“I’m pretty excited,” Staunton said. “It’s a tremendous challenge.”

When Crowley, 64, retired Feb. 9, Staunton was not one of the three original candidates for the position, but emerged when the executive council hired an executive search firm about three weeks ago.

“I had a different impression of the type of person they were looking for, probably my own misinterpretation,” Staunton said. “After the process got going, I realized the executive committee could be looking for someone with my background and what I perceived to be my skills.”

Margie Godfrey, the executive council’s president, headed the search.

“He comes across with incredible professional poise, compassion,” she said. “He has the leadership qualities, strength and courage with compassion, that we need to address the challenges we’re facing.”

Among those issues, Godfrey said, are more releaguing and competitive equity questions, and “ever-increasing litigation and the need to work with people and help them understand what we do.”

“His experience, background, personality and demeanor suit him perfectly for what the executive committee feels we need to have.”

In assuming command of the section, Staunton will oversee 540 schools and the nation’s seventh-largest high school organization.

“I think the committee was looking for someone with a vision for the section for the next five to 10 years,” Staunton said. “I described what I saw happening. . . . Schools will have to deal with the impact of legislation that will deal with social promotion and high school exit exams, open enrollment, and increases in student population.

“The schools in the Southern Section are going to grow, and there will be more schools coming into the section. We should try to anticipate and plan for that growth in the section, and the accompanying demographics. We need to make high school sports, and the benefits that accrue from participation, available to as many students as possible.”

Staunton was chairman of Orange County’s two-year releaguing effort.

Original candidates to replace Crowley were assistant commissioners Bill Clark and Karen Hellyer, and Liberty Christian Principal Clark Stephens. After an initial round of interviews, Staunton and John Myers, Huntington Beach Union High School District superintendent, were presented as new candidates.

Though Hellyer and Clark will work under Staunton in the Cerritos office, he didn’t expect any backlash. “Those people are professionals and they do a very good job,” Staunton said. “As a result of their professionalism, I do not anticipate problems. They’re good people.”

Staunton resides in Huntington Beach with his wife of 27 years, Susan. They have two children, Erin, 24, and Kevin, 21.

Staunton graduated from Whittier College in 1971 and began teaching at Bushard Elementary School in Fountain Valley. He earned a Master of Arts degree at Cal State Fullerton in 1976, and in 1978 moved to Fountain Valley High to teach speech therapy.

He began his administrative career in 1986 when he was named dean of students at Ocean View High, and became assistant principal at Huntington Beach in 1989. He was named principal two years later.