Four months after Rich Fischer announced his retirement as superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District, a replacement has been found.
At Monday night’s board meeting, trustees announced that Barry Groves, the current superintendent of the Cambrian School District in San Jose, will take Fischer’s place if contract negotiations are successful.
“I’ve known Barry since I’ve been here and I have a good feeling about him,” Fischer said Monday. “He focuses on the kids.”
Board president Julia Rosenberg said the goal is to have the contract signed by May 1 so that the board can ratify it May 8. Groves’ first day on the job would be July 1.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to be a part of such a great district,” Groves said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It’s acknowledged as being one of the preeminent school districts in the state.”
Prior to serving as Cambrian’s superintendent for 14 years, Groves has professional roots in Mountain View, having served as Crittenden Middle School’s assistant principal in the mid-1980s. He also taught high school English and history before earning his doctorate at Stanford University, and served as principal at Sunnyvale Middle School.
“We think Rich is great and fantastic and we didn’t want him to leave, but since we had to let him leave, we wanted to find someone who could take our district even further instead of just resting on Rich’s laurels,” said board vice president Susan Sweeley.
“He’s going to help take our district to the next level of excellence.”
To find a new superintendent, the board hired the same firm that found Fischer, Leadership Associates, to conduct a candidate search. The application deadline was in mid-March, and the board received nine applications, which Leadership Associates winnowed down to three final candidates, whom the board interviewed in early April.
Fischer and the trustees believe that Groves’ experience with a K-8 district will serve him well as superintendent of Mountain View-Los Altos, enabling him to work smoothly with surrounding elementary school districts.
“He’s a great guy. The district’s going to be in very good hands,” Fischer said.
E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com
