Educator at heart, consensus builder by reputation

Andrew Wainer

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of articles profiling the

superintendents who run our local school districts.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- His dad wanted him to be a lawyer, but Marc Ecker

ended up superintendent of the Fountain Valley School District.

How did that happen? It wasn’t easy.

“My dad wanted me to go to law school,” Ecker said. “After graduation, I

applied to several law schools and got into several good ones.”

But it just wasn’t what he wanted to do. So at the last minute, he

decided to pursue his true love -- education.

“When I decided to go into education after college, my dad didn’t talk to

me for three months,” he recalled.

But the law world’s loss was Fountain Valley’s gain. And his father

finally came around.

“He has accepts it now,” Ecker said.

It has been 28 years since he entered the field of education. He is now

superintendent of a district with some of the highest-achieving schools

in the county.

His interest in teaching started early.

“I was always interested in kids,” said the San Fernando Valley native.

“I had several summer jobs with the YMCA.”

While earning his bachelor’s degree at UCLA, Ecker began working as an

aide in the classroom.

When he enrolled in the school’s teaching credential program, he was

sold.

“I loved it,” Ecker said.

He studied under internationally renown educators such as Madeline

Hunter.

“It was a real treat being in her class,” Ecker said.

Hunter’s progressive educational philosophy clinched Ecker’s interest in

teaching kids.

Armed with a credential from UCLA, Ecker landed his first job as a

teacher in Los Alamitos in 1972. He stayed there for seven years.

“It was a very progressive district,” Ecker said. “They still have a very

high standard for education.”

Ecker taught first through sixth grade, giving him a broad overview of

elementary school education. While he “liked teaching,” he said he

“wanted to have a different impact on children.”

In 1979, his interest in administration landed him a principal’s job in

the Fountain Valley School District.

Ecker said he knew from the start that administration suited him.

“I enjoyed the greater control over establishing goals and objectives,”

he said.

Plus, being a principal suited his personality.

“I always enjoyed marketing and selling,” Ecker said.

In 1983, Ecker had to put his marketing skills to work.

“The district underwent a major organizational change,” he said. “We

began using middle schools.”

He said some members of the community and trustees opposed the switch to

middle schools. He was appointed principal of Masuda Middle School, in

part, to sell the idea of middle schools to the community..

“We had to be perfect,” Ecker said. “We had to prove to the community and

the board that middle schools work.”

Within a few years, Ecker’s marketing and public relations skills, not to

mention administrative acumen, had created what he called “a city on a

hill”.

“We had a waiting list of kids who wanted to enter,” Ecker said.

In 1990, after helping advance the cause of middle schools in the

district, then-Supt. Ruben Ingram asked Ecker to work on the district’s

surplus school sites.

“My job was to get the community to accept the idea of surplus sites,”

Ecker said.

At the time, district enrollment was going down rapidly. Under his reign,

the district closed eight sites. Two were sold.

Ecker faced many of the same community concerns that face neighboring

districts today.

“The community was opposed to closing sites because they didn’t want

their children to leave the neighborhood to go to school,” Ecker said.

“They also didn’t trust us. They thought the money we would gain selling

or leasing the sites would be wasted.”

Again, Ecker used his marketing skills and ability to draw people

together.

“I tried to change perceptions,” he said. “I created an action committee

for education.”

Ecker said he reached out to the community to relate to the district’s

facilities situation.

“We made a point of including the business and retirement communities in

our discussions,” he said. “We were up front and personal, and we managed

to convince the community that we were honest and competent.”

The effort was successful, Fountain Valley is now one of the only

districts in the area that is at peace with the community regarding

school sites.

Following Ecker’s success in pushing forward the district’s school sites

agenda, he was promoted to assistant superintendent in 1993. He became

superintendent three years later.

District board member Julie Hoxsie lauds Ecker’s “consensus building”

efforts.

“Marc has the ability to draw a community together,” Hoxsie said. “The

greatest asset he has is that he can take people from varying points of

view and bring them together for the good of the district.”

Hoxsie called Ecker’s sense of community amazing.

Recently, the district scored exceptionally high on the state’s Academic

Performance Index. Ecker credits its academic prowess to the “peace” in

the district.

“I tell the board to always focus on maximizing the time we spend on

educational issues rather than side issues,” Ecker said. “We’ve overcome

our differences without turmoil.”

He said his “partnerships for education philosophy” has sown the seeds of

peace in the district.

“I’ve always tried to build links and ties to different constituencies in

the district,” Ecker said. “It gives us greater ability to overcome

problems.”

FYI

WHO: Mark Ecker, Fountain Valley School District superintendent

AGE: 50

MARITAL STATUS: Married, two children

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree from UCLA, master’s from Cal State

Fullerton, doctorate from U.S. International University in San Diego

HOBBIES: Reading, racquetball and music