As the man who’s spent his entire 42- year career in the Orcutt Union School District prepares to take his leave, the school board begins its courtship with the standout candidate to take his place as superintendent.
Deborah Blow, currently superintendent of the Cambrian School District in San Jose, was selected as the lead candidate to replace current Superintendent Bob Bush after a pool of 19 applicants shrank to five interviewees, which took place on April 17. School board member Jim Peterson told the Sun that the decision to appoint Blow isn’t yet final, and a site visit with her is scheduled to happen before mid-May.
A press release sent out by the district board said it anticipates to appoint Blow as the next superintendent during the regular board meeting on May 14.
“It’s real difficult to fill anyone’s shoes who’s been in the district for 42 years,” Peterson said.
But he added that Blow’s experience, especially with dependent charters such as the one run by the Orcutt district, makes her the best person to take on the challenge. Blow has 10 years experience as a teacher in grades from kindergarten through high school. She served as an assistant principal, principal, and the assistant superintendent of educational services before becoming superintendent. Blow is in her fifth year as superintendent at the Cambrian School District.
Bush has been Orcutt’s superintendent for the last four years; before that he served as the assistant superintedent, a principal, and a teacher. He grew up in Orcutt, went to the district’s original kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, attended Ernest Righetti High School, went to Allan Hancock College, and then headed to California State University, Chico, before being hired as a sixth-grade teacher at Patterson Road school in Orcutt in 1972.
“To start and end your career in the same district is not really the norm,” Bush said. “I was born and raised a block from where I work, in a house built by my father and grandfather.”
He said things just kind of worked out for him. He was able to raise his family where he grew up, coach his kids, coach softball at Righetti High School, and coach basketball at Lakeview Middle School.
The community is one with which he feels a kindred spirit, and he said he is blessed to have worked within the one he grew up in, one that values education and where kids come first.
“I have no regrets,” Bush said. “In my opinion, there is not a more important job than educating children.”
This article appears in May 1-8, 2014.