Photo: Courtesy of Long Beach Unified

Long Beach Unified deputy superintendent Jill Baker

Photo: Courtesy of Long Beach Unified

Long Beach Unified deputy superintendent Jill Baker

In a highly unusual display of continuity in leadership, Long Beach Unified, one of California's largest districts with over 73,000 students, has appointed deputy superintendent Jill Bakery every bit its new superintendent. She volition succeed Chris Steinhauser, who is stepping downwards after 18 years in his post, the longest tenure by far in whatever large school district in California.

Her appointment was notable on several counts. Baker volition be the start woman to head the 135-twelvemonth-old commune, despite being in a profession that is dominated by women.

Information technology also comes at a time when none of the district's students are in form, just are at home attempting to forestall the spread of a potentially lethal virus that has shut downwardly every school in California. When she takes over in July, she will have to manage the aftermath of the prolonged school shutdown, and its still as-yet-unknown touch on students.

But there volition be few surprises for her.

Baker, l, has spent her entire 28-yr career in Long Beach, inbound the commune as an elementary schoolhouse teacher in 1992. Current schools primary Steinhauser has even deeper roots, having been raised in Long Beach, attended public schools there and likewise spending his entire teaching career in the district. He succeeded Carl Cohn, who served as superintendent for 10 years, and is also a Long Beach native who worked in the district for 17 years earlier becoming superintendent.

For a video presentation from Jill Bakery, go here.

Big urban districts typically endure — or suffer from — high superintendent turnover. The average length of tenure in big districts nationally is a picayune over 5 years, according to the about recent report from the Broad Heart, although turnover is oft much more rapid than that. According to tracking by EdSource, turnover in the state's largest districts has declined somewhat in California over the last three years, perhaps in part because districts are turning to people with longstanding ties to the district or the communities they serve, based on the theory that they are more likely to stay longer. Nonetheless, xvi of the superintendents in the land'due south 30 largest districts were appointed to their posts in 2022 or subsequently.

Long Embankment, which vies with Fresno for the third or fourth largest district in the state later Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified, is an extreme outlier in terms of leadership longevity. By the time Baker takes over in the side by side school year, the district volition take had just two superintendents in nigh three decades. That compares with neighboring Los Angeles Unified, for example, which has had four superintendents in the last decade alone — although i of them, the late Superintendent Michelle King, had to pace down for medical reasons.

"Good for Long Beach!" said Charles Kerchner, professor emeritus at the Schoolhouse of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University and an authority on educational organizations and teachers unions. "Compare what they have been able to practice with the rapid turnover in most urban school districts and you lot can see the dividends that continuous improvement and building trust provides to students and the community."

Over the years, Long Embankment has been viewed every bit having accomplished greater success than many other comparable districts in several areas. It was, for instance, listed every bit 1 of the districts every bit "beating the odds" in African American and Latino student accomplishment in a 2022 report by the Learning Policy Institute, and many observers have attributed some of the district's successes to its stable leadership. In 2003, it was awarded the $one million Broad Prize to districts that take demonstrated "the greatest overall performance and improvement in pupil accomplishment while narrowing accomplishment gaps amidst low-income students and students of colour." It is one of only two California districts ever to have been awarded the prize. The other is nearby Garden Grove Unified.

Onetime superintendent Cohn points to a less obvious explanation for Long Beach's leadership longevity: continuity on the school board. Felton Williams, the electric current president, has been on the board for xvi years, although he simply appear this volition be his terminal year. Jon Meyer has been there for 17. 2 others take been there vi years. "It is very rare for a Long Beach Unified board member to seek college office or use the school board as a stepping stone for the city council or country legislature," said Cohn. "That'south dissimilar what yous observe in other large urban districts where the school lath is oft the beginning rung on the political ladder."

EdSource writer John Fensterwald contributed to the article.

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