Schools

Dan Stepenosky Named LVUSD Superintendent

The current assistant superintendent of personnel will start his new job on Aug. 1.

Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Dan Stepenosky was promoted to superintendent of schools Tuesday and will start the new job when his predecessor, Donald Zimring, leaves the district on Aug. 1.

The district's board of education voted 5-0 to award Stepenosky a three-year contract, which expires on July 31, 2015, to oversee 16 schools and about 12,000 students.

The Calabasas resident was brought on board as LVUSD's assistant superintendent of personnel six years ago and prior to that served as principal of Beverly Hills High School.

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He is also the father of two LVUSD students.

Board President Cindy Iser said Stepenosky has done a brilliant job of recruiting principals and teachers as well as training them.

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"All of that has been underscored by his knowledge of is required of to deliver the best education in the 21st century to our students," she said during Tuesday's meeting.

Iser added that Stepenosky used a collaborative method for problem solving by maintaining strong communication with teachers, administrators and non-teaching employees.

"We've all benefited as he's maintained good relationships with our employees and associations," Iser said. "We've watched him face pressure, challenges and surprises calmly and with a sprit of optimism."

Stepenosky was also presented with praise from the rest of the board as well as Zimring, who has been superintendent since 2007.

Zimring said he was nervous at first about Stepenosky's lack of a human resources background when he sought a job at LVUSD. But those concerns were later allayed.

"If anyone has demonstrated the ability to eclipse the learning curve, it's Dan," Zimring said.

The current superintendent said will work closely with Stepenosky during the summer to help with the transition to his new job.

Looking ahead to day one, Stepenosky said his primary focus will be to continue providing quality education, despite the prospect of more budget cuts at the state level in the near future.

"The challenge for me will be to provide leadership for the entire school community, to keep innovative, to stay creative, to meet our students' and our community's need in the face of course of financial adversity and all of those other sorts of problems," he told Patch. "I'm not going to that alone, I'm going to do it with a team and by building relationships."

The prospective superintendent said he plans on building relationships by attending public events, sporting events and getting into classrooms.

"Accesibility is huge," Stepenosky said.

He added that he has a Twitter account and tries to blog whenever he can and that the district needs to take advantage of such technologies to open more channels of communication with the community.

"We'll utilize the technological tools we have to help Las Virgenes feel smaller, to give it more of that small town feel," Stepenosky said.

And moments after the board approved his new contract, Stepenosky thanked Zimring for his mentoring and coaching and plans on seeking more advice down the line.

"I will call you and burn up your email," Stepenosky said to Zimring.

The school board voted late last year not to renew Zimring's contract, which expires this summer. Zimring in return accepted an early retirement offer.

In the fall, he will start his new job as head of school at Brandeis Hillel Day School, a private Jewish school in the Bay Area.

Shortly after Zimring's impending departure was announced, board members said it was possible that a nationwide search would be conducted to find a new superintendent.

But Gaines said one of Stepenosky's strong traits is that he established ties with many teachers and other members of the school community.

"I think for me, one of the most important qualities to getting a new superintendent is understanding the community and Dan does, he gets it," she said. "I think that's really key."

During the meeting, Iser said the district also saved money and time by promoting Stepenosky.

"This board and the culture of our district as a whole values promoting proven leadership, talent and capability," she said.


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