Oceanside picks superintendent from its own ranks

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Tuesday, June 26, 2007 12:41 AM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE -- Larry Perondi, Oceanside Unified School District's deputy superintendent since 2005, will replace Ken Noonan as superintendent of the 21,000-student district next month, school board President Lillian Adams said Monday.

At its meeting tonight, the board is scheduled to formally accept Perondi for the position. Perondi's employment contract remains under negotiation and will be ratified later, Adams said.

At a cost of $43,000, the district's consultant, Leadership Associates, combed the country to find a replacement for Noonan, who retires Friday.

The two-month search, however, produced a finalist whose office is five steps from Noonan's.

"With him already being in the district, he has a pretty good idea of what the next steps will be," Adams said. "He knows the players and I know that he knows the wishes of the board."

Adams would not say how many candidates trustees considered.

Past and present colleagues on Monday described him as approachable, kind and quick-witted.

He lives in Chula Vista but belongs to a gym in Oceanside, where he exercises at 6 a.m., Perondi said.

Noonan hired Perondi, now 55, to serve as his deputy.

"He knows how to keep schools on track," Noonan said. "There's no doubt he will continue that."

An educator for 32 years, Perondi spent all but the last two of them in the sprawling Sweetwater Union High School District, where he worked as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal and area superintendent.

In Oceanside, Perondi said he is the direct supervisor of principals at the district's 25 schools. He also supervises the district's assistant superintendents. As deputy superintendent, he draws a $196,000 annual salary.

Perondi said he was glad that the district had invested the time and money to conduct a formal search.

"It validates my candidacy," he said. "I might not have been the best guy."

In Sweetwater, Perondi played a role in that district's "Compact for Success," a reform initiative that guarantees admission to San Diego State University for every district graduate.

Later, former Sweetwater Superintendent Ed Brand introduced a similar program to San Marcos Unified School District during his tenure as that district's chief.

Perondi said he is working to craft a similar arrangement between Oceanside Unified and California State University San Marcos.

Perondi himself graduated from San Diego State and earned a master's degree from Azusa Pacific University.

He was a classroom teacher in Chula Vista at Montgomery High and Granger Junior High schools. He later became principal at Chula Vista High School, where Jaci Toth was an English teacher.

With Perondi as principal, faculty meetings were upbeat and often humorous, Toth said.

"He always made the time or took the time to be pleasant with everybody," Toth said. "It was just such a positive environment. He made me feel appreciated."

Sweetwater also employed Perondi as an assistant principal at Montgomery High and Castle Park middle schools, dean of activities at Sweetwater high School and as a special assistant to the superintendent.

In Oceanside, Perondi has been instrumental in launching the Academic Recovery Centers at Oceanside and El Camino high schools and the Dropout Recovery Center at Clair W. Burgener Academy, Noonan said.

"He helped pull our whole staff together," he added. (The centers) proved to be greatly successful to students who without them would not have graduated."

This year, Noonan said, the centers served 300 students and 50 would-be dropouts earned diplomas last week because of them.

Also in Oceanside, Perondi has worked with the district's fundraising arm, the Oceanside Education Foundation, to create a Wall of Fame recognizing 101 years of outstanding students, said Larry Hatter, foundation president.

"I've had professional educators that are very high on him," Hatter said. "He seems to want to continue the team approach to making things work in the district. Certainly that's how Ken ran the district and I think Larry can do the same thing."

As superintendent, Perondi will administer the district's $160 million budget and negotiate with employee unions.

"He has been an effective communicator and has shown some really good leadership skills," said David Lee, president of the Oceanside Teachers Association. "I'm looking forward to working with him."

Perondi is married and has two grown sons.

-- Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com.

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