The new superintendent of the tiny but high-performing Hope Elementary School District in Santa Barbara is, technically speaking, from out of town. But it’s safe to say he won’t have to move.

The Hope school board Tuesday night announced that the district’s new leader will be Dan Cooperman, who has put in nearly two decades of service at the Goleta Union School District. For years, he has been that district’s assistant superintendent for instructional services.

The Hope district serves families in the Outer State Street and Hope Ranch areas, and is about as physically close to Goleta as can be.

Speaking in a pint-sized boardroom to the district’s board of trustees and a handful of audience members, Cooperman, 54, said his leadership style is collaborative.

“I intend to be very visible,” he said. “I want to get to know the principals, I want to know what the programs are, I want to know what the resources are, what the strengths are, and what challenges we face.”

Cooperman, whose annual salary will be $140,000, arrives as the Hope district is recovering from a tumultuous four-year period. Under the four-and-a-half-year leadership of veteran educator Gerrie Fausett — who officially retires July 1 — the Hope district has undergone a painful era of downsizing in a quest to ensure fiscal solvency.

In 2006, Hope district officials realized the schools would benefit financially from serving fewer students. The funding framework is a rare and enviable status known as “basic aid.” As a result, hundreds of students who flocked to the academically strong district from outside its boundaries — mostly from Santa Barbara and Goleta — were told they’d have to leave. Over a period of several years, enrollment in the district’s three schools — Monte Vista, Vieja Valley and the namesake Hope — tumbled by a third, to 980 students from 1,485.

With fewer students, the district saved money by shedding teachers, either through layoffs or attrition.

Fausett, 61, said the move has largely insulated the district from the depressing realities of California’s deepening economic crisis. Had it not happened, she said, the district, which already suffered cuts this year, would be facing $600,000 in additional retrenchments before fall. It’s a hefty sum for a district that operates with an annual budget of $10 million.

With the rough patch of the transfer-student saga behind it, Hope is in a less vulnerable position than the vast majority of districts in California, such as the K-12 Santa Barbara school system.

But Cooperman still may face some financial challenges. As a basic-aid district, Hope lives and dies by its own property taxes, because the district, unlike regular public school systems, does not receive substantial financial assistance from the state. The area’s property-tax yields have enjoyed several consecutive years of big annual gains of around 6 percent, but this year’s increase is expected to be a comparatively anemic 1.5 percent, Fausett said.

Plus, after California voters last week shot down a proposal by legislators to fix a historic $23 billion budget hole with increased taxes and borrowing, Fausett said there is a good chance the state will ask the basic-aid districts to share the pain.

“It’s pretty serious,” she said. “I don’t know if people realize how serious it is. Schools always reopen in August and September. Everything seems to be the same. It’s not. But it’s not necessarily apparent.”

Through its own budget cuts over the past couple years, the Hope district has lost a gardener, a health clerk, classroom aides and librarian hours, she said.

In addition, because the district just entered basic-aid status not even a year ago, it does not yet enjoy the comfort of a robust rainy-day fund.

During her stay at the Hope district, Fausett’s salary increased to $132,000 from $122,000. Fausett praised the abilities of Cooperman, who has a Ph.D. in the field.

“Dan is such a professional,” she said. “He will do fine.”

Cooperman is married and has two children, ages 19 and 14. He is an avid Los Angeles Dodgers fan — to the chagrin of Fausett, an Angels die-hard. He also enjoys fishing, running and swimming. In 2007, he was named Educator of the Year as part of the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Goleta’s Finest Awards. The first eight years of his career were spent as an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles and Santa Cruz areas.

Like Hope, the Goleta school district is also a basic-aid system.

— Noozhawk staff writer Rob Kuznia can be reached at rkuznia@noozhawk.com.