A familiar face will serve as the interim superintendent for the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
The board appointed Matt Beecher to temporarily fill the vacancy that will be created by the departure of Superintendent Luke Ontiveros, who announced his retirement weeks ago.
Beecher is the deputy superintendent for business services. He has worked for the district since 2005.
He has filled the district’s top job before after the prior superintendent, Phil Alvarado, retired.
Beecher became interim superintendent in 2015 after the board’s previous search had to be extended, and he held the role for the entire 2015-16 school year until Ontiveros arrived.
The board also approved a temporary salary change to reflect Beecher doing both jobs from Jan. 1 until the new superintendent begins working.
During Wednesday night’s meeting, the board also held its annual reorganization, naming Ricky Lara as president, Vedamarie Alvarez-Flores as vice president and Ricardo Valencia as clerk to the board.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.