Simi Trustees Pick Schools Chief on Another Split Vote

SIMI VALLEY —  School trustees--tapping an educator who began her career in Simi Valley 28 years ago--selected the district’s newest superintendent on a 3-2 vote late Thursday night,

Joyce C. Mahdesian, superintendent of Livermore’s school district, becomes the ninth leader of the Simi Valley Unified School District since 1990. She will receive a $140,000 annual salary.

A string of superintendents with short tenures has given the county’s largest school district a reputation of mismanagement. Before Mahdesian, five permanent and three interim superintendents have led the nearly 20,000-student district in the past eight years. Ken Moffett, who has been at the helm since March, is the latest interim superintendent.

Some left for other jobs and one retired early, citing difficulty working with Simi board members. The trustees ousted two superintendents after less than six months on the job, which cost the district more than $100,000 in severance pay.

The last two permanent superintendents were not hired by unanimous decisions and were both eventually forced out by the board after just months of service.

With Mahdesian also hired by a split vote, she faces the same burden of having to learn the idiosyncrasies of this large school district while creating accord among the normally contentious trustees.

Mahdesian has run the 13,000-student Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District since 1989. Before that, she served for a dozen years as a teacher at Simi Valley’s Vista Elementary and then as principal of Santa Susana Elementary before leaving in 1982.

Trustees Norman Walker and Caesar Julian voted against Mahdesian’s hiring, saying the $140,000 salary--making her one of the highest paid educators in Ventura County--was too much to pay.

“Why she is willing to come to a district where two of five trustees do not support her is disturbing to me,” Walker said. “She’s at the end of her career, which is an indication to me that her real interests may not be in Simi Valley at all, but in developing a good retirement package.”

Trustee Diane Collins said the high pay package was required to attract a good candidate.

“Our past reputation with superintendents makes it necessary to entice someone to come here--to give up a good job where they are successful,” Collins said. “It is more than I wish we had to pay.”

Along with Collins, trustees Carla Kurachi and Janice DiFatta voted for Mahdesian’s appointment.

Moffett, the interim superintendent, said the split vote made him uncomfortable.

“It makes me nervous for the district,” he said. “She’s a good superintendent. I don’t know why the vote is split.