Tustin Board Picks Superintendent, Plans to Reveal the Name Today

Tustin school board members announced Tuesday that they had picked a new superintendent for the district.

“We hope this person will be able to lead us in the direction that we need to go,” board member Ann G. Albertson said.

But the school board will not reveal the individual’s name until this afternoon.

The biggest challenges facing the new superintendent are securing state funding to build new schools and renovate old ones, as well as managing the growing enrollment in the 16,000-student district, Albertson said. Board member Jonathan W. Abelove also declined to reveal the candidate, but did say it was a man who occupies “a position of high authority, not in California.”

“We’re getting a fresh set of eyes from outside,” he said.

Board members will formally vote on their top candidate at a special meeting Thursday.

James O. Fleming, who recently retired as superintendent of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, has been heading Tustin on an interim basis since former superintendent George W. Mannon retired in July.