Board approves new TOW principal

The Laguna Beach Unified School District board of trustees on Tuesday confirmed Michael Conlon as the new principal of Top of the World Elementary School.

Conlon, the parent of a TOW fourth-grader, will start the job Aug. 4. He replaces Ron La Motte, who is retiring after 13 years at the school. La Motte, who began as an assistant principal at Thurston Middle School in 1992, will become director of the master’s in education program at Concordia University in Irvine.

Conlon is the principal at Olivewood Elementary School in Lake Forest and served as assistant principal at Oak Middle School in Los Alamitos, according to a news release. He was also an elementary school teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District.

“Being a parent of a TW student, I know how special the school and community is,” Conlon said in the release. “It is an honor to be considered, and I am humbled to have been selected.”

Conlon’s salary will be $134,926 a year.

Candidates for the position were interviewed by a panel of parents, teachers, staff and administrators. Three advanced to a final interview with Supt. Sherine Smith and other district administrators.

“As a successful, experienced principal and father of a TOW student, he is the perfect fit for TOW and our district,” Smith said in the release.

The district plans to introduce Conlon to the community at a public event before the end of the school year.