Riled district to get a new leader

Westminster School District trustees on Thursday named Sharon Nordheim as superintendent.

The 5-0 vote caps a chaotic search for a leader for the district, which serves 10,000 kindergarten through eighth-grade students in Westminster, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Midway City.

Nordheim “is an outstanding leader, and she has the ability to maintain stability and unity in the district as we move forward to ensure academic achievement for all students,” board President Mary Mangold said in a prepared statement.

The district has been in turmoil in recent years.

It drew national scrutiny in 2004 when the board hesitated to adopt a state-mandated antidiscrimination policy that allowed employees and students to define their own gender.

Since then, clashes between board members and district officials prompted the departure of at least five high-level administrators, including the district’s last superintendent, Sheri Loewenstein, who announced her resignation after just 16 months on the job.

In May, the board voted to name KimOanh Nguyen-Lam superintendent. Nguyen-Lam, associate director of the Center for Language Minority Education and Research at Cal State Long Beach, would have been the nation’s first Vietnamese American school superintendent.

But a week later, the board rescinded the appointment, prompting charges of racism against the three white board members who voted to withdraw the job offer.

Nguyen-Lam filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the district that is pending.

Nordheim, who has worked in the district three years, is associate superintendent of personnel services and will begin July 1. She will earn $165,000 annually and get a $500-per-month car allowance in her new position.

She replaces Bobbi Mahler, the district’s interim superintendent since summer 2006.

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seema.mehta@latimes.com