UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Upper Lake Unified School District on Tuesday voted to hire two principal positions and accepted an organization chart that lays out the leadership responsibilities for the new district.

In separate votes the board unanimously approved hiring the principals for Upper Lake Middle School and Upper Lake High School.

Based on the board's action, Don Boyd, the current assistant superintendent of the Upper Lake Union High School District, will be the new principal of the middle school and Sandy Coatney, Upper Lake High's vice principal and dean of students, will be the new high school principal, effective July 1.

Boyd and Coatney are the fourth and fifth employees, respectively, that the board has voted to hire as it has begun the work of establishing its key administrative posts.

First hired was interim Superintendent Patrick Iaccino, who continues to also fulfill his role as superintendent and superintendent of the soon-to-be-dissolved high school district.

The board followed up by hiring Dina McCrea, Iaccino's administrative assistant at the high school, to fulfill that same role for the new district, followed by the hiring of the high school's business manager, Sue Milhaupt, as chief business official.

Still to be hired is the new elementary school principal. Valerie Gardner, currently the superintendent/principal of the elementary district, is due to retire this summer.

The board approved a recruitment for the principal's job. The deadline for applications was March 4. A committee that includes Iaccino and Gardner, and elementary teachers and parents will work select the new candidate.

In other business, the board unanimously approved a district organizational chart.

At the top of the chart is the superintendent, and under that post are listed an administrative assistant and a head of maintenance and operations, and two arms of management – district and site.

Under the district management arm are the chief business official – a fiscal assistant and food services staffer answer to that individuals – along with the director of special education and director of technology.

Under site management are the elementary, middle and high school principals, with the middle school principal to oversee alternative education, with transportation under the high school principal's oversight.

Both Milhaupt and Iaccino also gave updates to the board about the ongoing work to get district business fully consolidated, including issues with free and reduced lunch programs and the district's ad hoc committees.

Gardner, seated in the audience, told the board that there is a tremendous amount of work going on right now regarding the effort to complete the consolidation, adding that it's “mind boggling” how much Iaccino is having to handle.

Iaccino said it's a learning process and indicated he's glad to be doing it, despite the workload.

The board is next scheduled to meet Tuesday, March 22, and is expected to move from twice-monthly meetings to meeting just once a month beginning in April.

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