Hazlett on the move from Glendale to La Cañada High

Mary Hazlett had just earned her teaching credential from Occidental College in 1997 when she was offered a job teaching history at La Cañada High School.

It was a dream gig, but there was just one hitch — she’d accepted another offer from Glendale Unified School District just two weeks earlier.

“I’d been raised that when you accept a job, you’re giving a commitment and so, obviously, I stayed,” Hazlett recalled.

It would be nearly 18 years before the educator’s path brought her back to La Cañada Flintridge, a place the Tujunga resident considers a second home already.

After spending nearly two decades as a social sciences teacher and activities director for the Glendale High School Associated Student Body, Hazlett was named new assistant principal of La Cañada High in a July 14 meeting of the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board.

“I’m very, very excited to have you on the team,” Board President Andrew Blumenfeld told Hazlett at the meeting. “I’ve only just gotten to recently meet you, but understanding your background and what you’re going to bring to the (administrative) team, I think it’s going to be a really strong dynamic there.”

As assistant principal, Hazlett will be in charge of athletics, ASB and disciplinary matters, as well as having some instructional duties. The position requires a certain level of experience and dedication, according to LCHS Principal Ian McFeat.

“We really had it in our minds that we wanted to hire somebody who was hard working and had a good work ethic,” McFeat said. “(Mary) is intelligent and she’s a dedicated worker, somebody who will put in the time. And she’s kind. She’s a people person.”

Hazlett, who grew up in Glendale, comes from a long line of educators — her grandfather taught math at Stanford in the ’50s and ’60s, and her mother still teaches social science classes at Glendale Community College and Pasadena City College.

Although she earned a history degree from UCLA in 1994, and worked after graduation as a personal banker in West Los Angeles, Hazlett always felt more important work was waiting for her.

“That was fine as my first job, but it felt kind of empty,” she remembered. “I had friends who were teaching, telling me about how fun it was and how you laugh everyday.”

Soon after graduating from Occidental with her master’s degree, Hazlett decided on secondary-level education, because she wanted to interact with students on the brink of going out into the wider world.

So when she received the offer of a teaching position at Glendale High School, she took it. Hazlett thrived teaching social science classes and building relationships with her students and their parents.

Three years later, she was offered a chance to head the school’s ASB. It was a position she enjoyed so much, she stayed there for the next 14 years, turning down opportunities to teach advanced placement government and economics at Clark Magnet High School and other administrative-track positions.

It wasn’t until she began to talk to colleagues and mentor Dr. Stephen Hodgson, a longtime GUSD chief business and financial officer who also served as a financial consultant for LCUSD, that Hazlett began to see how much an administrative position might be a growth opportunity for her.

“After 14 years of people saying, ‘But you’d be good at this because you’re nice and you’re smart and friendly, and organized and have all the attributes of being a successful administrator,’ it started to soak in,” she said. “It just started to feel like this was the right time.”

Hazlett set her sights on La Cañada and applied right away when she saw the LCHS assistant principal job, previously held by Dr. Jarrett Gold, posted on the education job board edjoin.org in May.

Meanwhile, the search for a new administrator was a relatively fast one, according to new Assistant Supt. of Human Resources Jeff Davis.

In the span of about one week, a selection committee whittled down some 30 or more applications to nine candidates, largely from Southern California. From that, four finalists were interviewed. Hazlett’s experience made her a standout, Davis said.

“We needed somebody good, and we needed somebody quick,” he added. “This is a stellar school district, and these kids deserve the very best.”

Hazlett’s first day at LCUSD and last day at GUSD was Monday. According to district figures, her starting annual salary is $102,174.