The Goleta Union School District officially has a successor to retiring Superintendent Bill Banning after its Board of Trustees approved a three-year contract Wednesday night for Donna Lewis, a Bay Area school administrator the board tapped for the job last month.
The contract runs from July 1 until June 30, 2020, and Lewis’ annual salary will be $205,000.
Lewis, the assistant superintendent of human resources for the San Mateo-Foster City School District, helped administer 20 K-8 schools with a total of 12,500 students.
In Goleta, she will oversee nine schools and 3,700 students, about 28 percent of whom are English language learners.
“I am very excited about the opportunities to come to Goleta and lead the school district,” Lewis told Noozhawk. “The community resonates with me because I’ve lived and worked in communities like that,” which feature technology and rural components and consist of diverse families.
She lauded her new district for its staff’s “excellent reputation” and its commitment to small neighborhood schools.
Banning announced his June 30 retirement in January after five years at the helm and more than 35 years as a public school educator.
Lewis is one of several new superintendents along the Santa Barbara County South Coast.
In April and May, the Montecito Union, Cold Spring and Carpinteria Unified school districts all hired new leaders.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.