Superintendent Shawn to retire

After nine years with the Arcadia Unified School District, the last six as Superintendent, Dr. Joel Shawn will retire on June 30, ending a 36-year career in education.

Dr. Joel Shawn

The prime candidate to replace him is former Arcadia High School principal Dr. David Vannasdall, who was promoted two years ago to Deputy Superintendent, just as Dr. Shawn was Deputy Superintendent for three years and took over the top job when Mimi Hennessy retired in 2008.

Shawn, who lives in the city of Walnut, told Arcadia’s Best that one of the first things he plans to do when he retires is go on a bicycling vacation with his wife. He also plans to spend more time with his hobbies of photography and new technology, among many other projects he has in mind.

For his entire tenure, Shawn has managed the implementation of the first two phases of the $218 million Measure I facilities bond passed in 2006 under Hennessy. That project to modernize all ten school buildings in the district and the administration building with the latest technology and modern amenities, as well as adding the community’s new state-of-the-art 1,200 seat Arcadia Performing Arts Center on the Arcadia High School campus, will move under the management of the third Superintendent before finally being completed. Ironically, the last element of the quarter-billion dollar modernization completed under Shawn is the new District Office in April near Bonita Park off Third Street south of Huntington Drive. Shawn is presently clearing out his old office on the high school campus and moving into the new digs that he will occupy for only two months. The old office will be torn down to allow for more parking space at the high school. A special meeting of the Board of Education on April 22 will serve as an open house for the new District Office.

All elements of the first two phases of the modernization have been completed on time and under budget under the management of Shawn, who also led the district through the recession without cutting any arts or sports programs while also limiting teacher layoffs. Shawn worked with the school board in 2012 to successfully campaign for the community’s support of a $228 per parcel tax which generated $35 million for Arcadia schools that cannot be taken away by the state, according to school board President Cung Nguyen. “The funds were used to retain and attract high-quality teachers, protect academic programs and preserve the marching band and our visual and performing arts programs,” Nguyen said.

“The teachers and staff of this school district are clearly committed to the youth of Arcadia and are the best educators I have ever worked with,” Shawn said in a statement. “I am exceptionally proud of the work we have done together and believe the future holds continued success and excellence for Arcadia Unified.”

The school district boasts a district-wide 929 score on the latest Academic Performance Index (API), and a graduation rate of 99%, and continues to be recognized nationally for many of its academic, arts, and sports programs. Among AUSD’s many prestigious recognitions is a “Gold Medal” rating for Arcadia High School from the U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 National Rankings, for which more than 21,000 public high schools were evaluated.

In this current school year, AUSD has three of the top four highest-scoring middle schools in Los Angeles County on the Academic Performance Index, including Foothills Middle School, which earned the highest score in the county with an impressive 977. In addition to 22 National Merit Scholarships finalists at Arcadia High School this year, two Arcadia High students grabbed additional headlines with their remarkable test scores. One student earned a perfect score on his AP Calculus BC Exam, while another earned the highest possible score on the ACT Exam. Both rare feats were accomplished by less than one-tenth of one percent of students who took those particular exams.

— By Scott Hettrick