Principal Selected for Magnet School

A top administrator has been selected for the first magnet high school planned for the county.

The Simi Valley Unified school board Tuesday selected Patricia Hauser, now principal of Sinaloa Junior High School, to become principal of the magnet school, which is set to open later this year on the campus of what is now Sequoia Junior High School.

Supt. Mary Beth Wolford, who recommended Hauser for the spot, described her as an extremely well-qualified administrator with the talents necessary to launch a new school.

“She’s very powerful in a very unassuming way,” Wolford said. “She has excellent people skills. Sinaloa’s going to miss her.”

Although Hauser’s new position does not officially start until July, she will participate in several important steps to be taken this spring, Wolford said.

The district plans to survey parents and estimate attendance at the school, which will be devoted to technology and the arts. With an estimate in hand, district officials, including Hauser, will then assemble the school’s staff, mostly from existing district employees.

“By selecting her early, this gives her the opportunity to get involved in staffing and planning all the important things happening this spring,” Wolford said.

Hauser has been with the district 18 years, starting as a math teacher at Valley View Junior High School one year after her graduation from Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. She later worked as a counselor and assistant principal before becoming Sinaloa’s principal in 1991.

In separate personnel actions, the school board filled two other positions Tuesday, selecting Karen Dubrule the new director of elementary education for the district and David Kanthak the new assistant superintendent for business services.

Dubrule was formerly a junior high school principal in Bonsall in northern San Diego County. Kanthak, who has worked as an administrator in three other school districts, was most recently a school finance specialist for the federal Department of Education in Washington.