This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

San Marino Superintendent May Jump To BHUSD

Dr. Gary Woods has been released from his contract with the San Marino Unified School District to pursue a job with BHUSD.

Dr. Gary Woods, the superintendent of the , is in negotiations to accept the job as permanent superintendent for the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

In an email announcement Thursday, the SMUSD Board of Education said it was releasing Woods from his contract so that he could accept the top position with the BHUSD. The SMUSD has ranked number one in California’s academic performance scores for the last seven years.

“We have been informed that Dr. Woods is a finalist for the position of superintendent [of BHUSD],” the announcement said, following media reports that he was talking to BHUSD about the job.

Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Woods has not yet been hired by BHUSD, Beverly Hills board members told Patch. They otherwise had no comment. The board had been expected to announce a decision about a new superintendent at its next meeting on May 31.

With about 3,500 students, SMUSD is a smaller district than BHUSD’s 4,700 students. SMUSD has two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school compared with Beverly Hills’ four K-8 schools and one high school.

Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

has served as BHUSD acting superintendent since last summer, and many community and PTA leaders have asked for him to be kept on for another year. Several board members, however, told Patch that they wanted to hire a permanent superintendent as soon as possible.

Woods may be a familiar name to some local parents; he had been a runner-up in the 2005 search for a BHUSD superintendent. A prior board instead offered the job to San Diego administrator Kari McVeigh, who lasted less than two years in the position.

During his four years as SMUSD superintendent, Woods has seen the district experience significant financial issues as a result of state budget cuts. The Refuse to Lose campaign, organized by SMUSD in 2010, raised $4.3 million to help prevent a third of the district’s teachers from being laid off.

The San Marino Schools Foundation, similar to the , is an aggressive fundraiser for the SMUSD. The San Marino foundation asks parents for a donation of $2,000 per child.

Jessica Hamlin from our sister site, San Marino Patch, contributed to this story.

Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?