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The Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District has selected a longtime Bay Area superintendent as its next leader, the school board announced this week.
The MVLA board has picked Eric Volta as its new superintendent, board Vice President Esmeralda Ortiz said at a Monday, May 20, meeting. He will replace Nellie Meyer, who announced in March that she would retire after five years leading the district.
Volta currently serves as superintendent of the Liberty Union High School District in Contra Costa County, a role he has held since 2011.
Volta stood out during the interview process because of his experience as the superintendent of a high school district, as well as prior roles as an assistant superintendent, principal and assistant principal, Ortiz told the Voice.
“We thought that he … would be well-positioned to be able to support our district leadership, as well as our high school leadership, based off his vast experience in his various roles,” Ortiz said.
She added that it was also apparent that Volta is respected by other superintendents throughout the state.
“I am very excited to be coming to MVLA,” Volta said in an email. “I have heard so many good things about the students there.”
He added that before Liberty, he worked as a teacher, coach and vice principal in the Santa Clara Unified School District. The new job will represent a return to the area.
While the board announced Volta’s selection on Monday night, Ortiz said that the district is still working with Volta to finalize his employment contract, and that the board plans to vote to formally hire him at a June 3 meeting.
The approval of Volta’s employment contract was originally on the agenda for the Monday, May 20, meeting.
Ortiz told the Voice that while it would have been ideal to make the announcement and approve the contract at the same time, there were still a couple of details to finalize. She described the delay as a logistical one.
“All parties are fully confident that we’ll be moving forward,” Ortiz said. “We’ve done our due diligence.”
Congratulations to the MVLA Board of Trustees. This was quick, this was efficient, (I hope ‘interested communities’ felt sufficiently included), and the choice of ed-executive search firm is a bit different from ‘what the usual’ was a decade-or-two-ago, but seems well-tried and effective for this district.
– Contract final negotiation – ah, the money, the perks (not just run-of-the-mill benefits). One ‘problem’ with Keeping East Bay good superintendents is HOUSING / MOVING. MVWSD had this problem / a reasonably good superintendent, hired from the Castro Valley area got Really Tired after two years with Commuting! Bye Bye left on friendly terms / but still / the Chief Administrative Officer was gone and had to be replaced. Whatever was ‘reasonable’ and ‘stuff that was improving’ lost it’s momentum within that district.
He looks like a principal. Straight out of central casting.