As a student at Kellogg Elementary School in Goleta, Mary Kahn knew she wanted to grow up to be just like her teachers. She remembers taking chalk home and playing teacher, making her sister play the role of student. 

Now, Kahn is the superintendent of the Goleta Union School District, the same district in which she grew up.

“What feels great, that I feel so lucky to be in Goleta leading in this new role, is that I really enjoy the community,” Kahn said. “It’s so much fun to walk through the schools and know the people, and know each site’s goals and what they’re trying to do, and be able to take that and just add to it, rather than having to try to learn a new community.”

Kahn took over the role from Diana Galindo-Roybal after she retired in June. 

Kahn was previously the district’s assistant superintendent of instructional services for six years. Before that, she was the principal of Isla Vista Elementary School for six years. 

In her previous role, Kahn monitored students’ learning progress and helped ensure that the district was meeting their goals. She also listened to staff and parents about what they thought students needed. 

“We’re really serving our community. We know what is needed in the world of instruction and is expected in terms of what’s safe and how we manage the resources we have, but we also do that in tandem with our community, and hear what it is that people are interested in,” Kahn said. “We’re really taking a lot of information in and synthesizing the needs and matching that to the resources we have.”

Kahn’s role at Isla Vista school was her first administrative position. She was hired by then-superintendent and current Santa Barbara Unified School District board member Bill Banning. Banning was the superintendent of GUSD from 2012 to 2017. 

“My team and I really felt like she had the right stuff, and took a chance on hiring somebody for a difficult school that hadn’t been a principal,” Banning said. “It really paid off. She was a terrific choice for that job.”

Banning said he was thrilled to hear that Kahn had been selected as superintendent, though he wasn’t surprised, sensing that she was always heading in that direction. 

“She was a remarkable principal, and I enjoyed working with her immensely,” Banning said. “She was very talented, very dedicated, a hard worker, and she really knows her stuff.”

Kahn said she and her predecessor, Galindo-Roybal, worked closely together in the spring to help ensure a smooth transition. 

“I was able to meet with every school and every department and each of our leadership team members to listen to what it is that they think is working really well in their purview, so that we make sure we keep those things,” Kahn said. “I was also able to hear from them what’s percolating to the top, what’s a current need that they might need help with.”

From those conversations, Kahn set three goals for herself: continuing literacy programs, managing students’ positive behavior and regulation, and budgeting for the district’s needs. 

Kahn said she wants to continue the strides made in student literacy that was started by previous superintendents. Last year, the district gave additional literacy training to the primary teachers, and it is doing the same this year with upper-grade teachers. 

The district also wants to work to ensure that students and staff have the necessary skills to handle behavioral issues so that students will be ready to learn, Kahn said. 

“One of the things that I heard was, out of the pandemic, there was an increased need to support children with positive behavior and regulation for a variety of reasons,” Kahn said. “They didn’t have access to school, they didn’t have that same access to social relationships.”

Just like other school districts across the state, GUSD has to manage its budget differently because of the end of COVID-era funding.

“Our COVID funding has gone away. We spent it very well,” Kahn said. “We’re very happy with the results we had based on our spending, but there are things that we started spending money on that we’re also very happy with, but the money’s gone away, and we want to keep those programs.”

The district used the funds to increase the number of employees in order to keep class sizes small and support after-school programs, and added several content specialists and intervention specialists. The district also used the funds to increase the janitorial staff to keep up with cleaning during the pandemic. 

In February, the Goleta school board voted to cut six custodial positions, six content specialists, three intervention specialists and one licensed vocational nurse. In addition, nine content specialists had their hours cut.  

Kahn said the budget is in a strong place as the staff focuses on what programs they want to continue and add. 

“We’re very happy with what we’re doing, but there are other things we’d like to add and be doing more, and so if we want to do that, we might need to streamline some things,” Kahn said. “We’re still figuring that out. We’re definitely not making cuts. We have a healthy organization overall, but we want to make sure that we’re spending the money on the things we want to.” 

Emily Zacarias, a GUSD school board member, said Kahn has helped with a smooth transition into the new school year.

“I feel like she really helped this school year start off very smooth, and with a clear vision and goals for all of us to follow,” Zacarias said.

Zacarias said it’s been beneficial for the district to have someone from Goleta take over rather than finding a new superintendent from out of the area.

“​​I think she’s doing great,” Zacarias said. “I’m really impressed with her ability to really seamlessly jump into this position, having just known the district for so long, known the schools. She’s from Goleta, her kids went to school here, and she just really hit the ground running.”

Zacarias said Kahn’s strong start stems from being able to take time at the end of last school year to connect with different departments and schools. 

Looking into the future of GUSD, Kahn sees the district continuing to support the community and prepare students for junior high, high school and beyond. 

“Having kids in the elementary age is so much fun,” Kahn said. “It’s a great time to learn and grow and try out things and figure out who you are, and that’s part of our role is to provide those experiences so that kids can have a chance to figure out what they want to do.”