The Hope Elementary School District board of trustees hired Anne Hubbard as the new superintendent, and approved her employment contract at its Monday meeting.
“We’re very excited; she really stood out from our field,” board president Dan Cunnison told Noozhawk.
Hubbard is the superintendent/principal at the K-8 Cayucos Elementary School District in San Luis Obispo County, and before that, was principal at Santa Barbara Unified’s Washington Elementary School for two years.
The board had a strong field of candidates apply and was “really pleased to get her,” Cunnison said.
Daniel Cooperman is retiring at the end of June after seven years as Hope’s superintendent.
Hubbard will start July 1, and there will be a few weeks of transition, Cunnison said.
The Hope Elementary School District in Santa Barbara has about 1,000 students between Hope School, Monte Vista School and Vieja Valley School.
“I’m really thrilled and I’m really, really excited,” Hubbard said.
She’s been researching board meeting notes and especially the budget, which has been a concern for the district, she said.
“I’ll look at what we can do to restore some programs and start building up reserves again, because it’s not a comfortable spot having no reserves.”
Hubbard attended UC Santa Barbara for undergraduate and graduate school, and moved back to the area with her family in 2012 when she was hired as principal of Washington Elementary School.
She has been commuting to Cayucos for two years, living and working there during the week and driving to Santa Barbara, where her husband and two youngest children still live, for the weekends.
The plan was for the family to move up to Cayucos later, but they didn’t want to leave Santa Barbara, she said.
“I know my family had spoken very loudly and clearly they want to be in Santa Barbara, and we made a decision as a family that when an opportunity came up, I would pursue it.”
She was attracted to Hope Elementary School District’s small size — three schools — so she can get to know the community and the students more intimately, she said.
“I was always fearful going into administration that I would lose time with students,” she said. “With three schools, I still feel I can get to know them.”
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.