After six years at the helm, Dr. Tricia Price will step down as superintendent and principal of Santa Barbara’s Cold Spring School District at the end of the present school year, the district announced.
“I really feel fortunate and blessed to have spent six years in an educational environment that I consider to be excellent,” Price told Noozhawk.
Prior to taking the reins at the K-6 one-school district, she taught at local schools and was principal of three elementary schools in the Carpinteria Unified School District.
Price herself is the product of local education, including the Santa Barbara Unified School District. She got her credential from Westmont College.
Because it has been a central component of her own education and career, Price said she’d like to remain active in the local education scene.
“I really feel a debt of gratitude to a community that has given so much to me over the years, educationally,” she said. “So I hope to continue that at some level in the field of education and in advocating for youth.”
Under Price’s leadership, the 170-student Cold Spring School added a STEAM program (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to its curriculum and made progress in replacing its portable buildings with a permanent one, the district said in a statement.
Over the past six years, Cold Spring School also received state recognition as a California Distinguished School and received a California Gold Ribbon Schools Award.
Price will miss the “very involved parents, and the very committed school board that always puts kids first,” she said.
“The staff here is committed and skillful and passionate and compassionate,” she said. “I’m going to miss them terribly — they’re wonderful. That’s why we’re all here, after all.”
The task of selecting her successor will be taken up by the district’s incoming board of trustees, which will start its new term on Monday, said outgoing board president Bryan Goligoski.
That 6 p.m. meeting, at the Cold Spring auditorium at 2243 Sycamore Canyon Road, will set the framework of the search process, Goligoski said.
Cold Spring will have some competition in that search, however.
The Carpinteria Unified School District is about to begin its own search to replace Micheline Miglis, who parted ways with the district in August, and the Montecito Union School District is in the process of finding Superintendent Tammy Murphy’s successor.
“It’s going to be a very interesting time for school boards on the South Coast,” Goligoski said, adding that he expects some candidates will apply for all three openings.
— 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.