HUNTINGTON BEACH : School Board Names New Superintendent

The Ocean View School District board on Tuesday tentatively named a new superintendent, officials said.

Trustees have unofficially agreed to hire James Tarwater, an administrator with the South Bay Union Elementary School District near San Diego, to replace Supt. Monte McMurray on May 18. McMurray is retiring.

Board members met in closed session Tuesday to discuss terms of Tarwater’s contract but have not yet disclosed how much he will earn.

The board will consider confirming Tarwater as superintendent at its meeting next Tuesday, unless it calls a special meeting before then.

Neither board members nor Tarwater could be reached for comment Tuesday.

For four years, Tarwater has been the assistant superintendent for instruction services for South Bay Union, based in Imperial Beach. The district has 12 elementary schools, serving 9,800 students. Ocean View will have 11 elementary schools and four middle schools next fall, including about 8,600 students.

Tarwater is a Whittier College graduate and obtained his master’s degree from Redlands University and a doctorate from Northern Arizona University.

Tarwater’s career in education began in 1966 as a teacher in the Orange Unified School District. He also taught in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District in San Diego County, where he was promoted to assistant principal.

He continued his administrative career with the Fall River Joint Unified School District in Shasta County. In 1982, he moved to the La Mesa/Spring Valley School District near San Diego. He spent six years there as a principal and as the district’s director of curriculum. From there, he moved to the South Bay Union district.

If approved as Ocean View’s superintendent, Tarwater will join the district at one of the most pivotal junctures in its history.

The district, which is just recovering from a decade of declining enrollment, will implement a broad reorganization plan in September. It will introduce middle schools to the district, change 11 other schools to K-5 elementary schools and close two other sites.

By year’s end, the makeup of Ocean View’s school board will change. Long-time trustees Sheila Marcus and Carolyn Hunt have both said that they will not seek reelection in November.

McMurray, who said he plans to remain as top administrator until his successor is in place, is retiring after a 21-year career with Ocean View. He announced his retirement last fall, and the board has been searching for a successor for about four months.

After working as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent, McMurray became Ocean View’s interim superintendent in January, 1989, after Supt. Dale Coogan became ill. When Coogan died two months later, McMurray was officially hired as superintendent.

In the past three years, he has directed Ocean View through one of its stormiest periods ever.

During McMurray’s tenure, the district has weathered several controversies, including threatened school closures, racial segregation, budget cuts and the change to middle schools.