At outgoing Superintendent Sandra Lyon’s last public meeting with the local school district, Santa Monica-Malibu Board of Education members figured out who will be in charge for the next six months.
The school board last Wednesday announced Chris King and Sylvia Rousseau as interim co-superintendents for the rest of the calendar year as it continues its search for Lyon’s long-term successor.
King’s contract, which was not immediately available Thursday, was approved at Wednesday’s meeting. Rousseau’s contract will be formally approved by the board at its July 20 meeting, according to district spokesperson Gail Pinsker.
The two longtime administrators will serve simultaneously, Pinsker said, but they won’t necessarily be on the job at the same time. Neither King nor Rousseau was present at Wednesday’s meeting.
School Board President Laurie Lieberman said she is looking forward to working with education leaders who have experience in large, diverse districts. The board has stressed the importance of keeping alive the momentum it has built on its quest to curb longstanding disparities in academic outcomes between minority students and their peers.
King arrives with more than 30 years of experience in education, including as superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado from 2007 to 2011. He recently served as interim superintendent for the Anaheim City School District and as a high school principal in Ramona, California.
King holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Fort Lewis College in Colorado and a master’s in journalism and mass communications from the University of Colorado at Denver, where he also earned a Ph.D in educational leadership.
Rousseau returns to the Santa Monica-Malibu district after serving as a Santa Monica High School principal from 1993 to 2000. She held several administrative positions in the LA Unified School District, including principal, assistant superintendent of secondary instruction and area superintendent.
Rousseau has taught at UCLA, USC and Loyola Marymount and has conducted research on equity, diversity and instruction to English language learners, according to a district press release.
Mark Kelly, a 17-year district employee who has been serving as the assistant superintendent for student services, was named the interim deputy superintendent. Amendments to his contract were approved Wednesday.
A principal at Santa Monica and Malibu high schools before taking a district leadership position, Kelly previously taught educational leadership courses at UCLA and Cal State Northridge and facilitated curriculum workshops at the Los Angeles System Initiative. Earlier in his career, he was a math teacher at North Hollywood High School as well as at Byrd and Sepulveda middle schools.
Lyon starts Thursday as superintendent of the Palm Springs Unified School District. The May announcement of her departure came less than a year after she signed a contract extension with SMMUSD through the 2017-18 school year.
The administrative shakeup comes as the district faces numerous key issues, including a protracted legal battle over chemical cleanup in Malibu, the possible creation of a separate Malibu district and attempts to close longstanding academic achievement gaps.
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A version of this story previously ran in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
