Clovis Unified School District has found its replacement for outgoing Superintendent Eimear O’Brien.
The CUSD Governing Board announced Monday during a special meeting that it has selected Dr. Corrine Folmer, the Associate Superintendent of School Leadership, to take over the district’s top job.
The backstory: O’Brien announced in January that she will retire at the end of the school year after six years on the job and nearly three decades with the district.
- The CUSD board met following O’Brien’s announcement and signaled its intent to move with urgency, making it likely that an in-house candidate would be selected as the next superintendent.
The big picture: The board voted unanimously to select Folmer after interviewing six candidates over the weekend. Board President David DeFrank noted that not every candidate was from CUSD.
- Folmer will officially take over as superintendent in July after O’Brien wraps up her last school year.
What they’re saying: DeFrank talked through the process of conducting the search over the compressed two-month period, saying that the board was able to come to its decision after many meetings with the community and employee groups.
- “We need someone who values and hears our employees, who values their input and can utilize that input to make effective decisions for our district,” DeFrank said. “We need someone who has the courage of their convictions and who will do the right thing even when it’s not easy. And the feedback also indicated we want someone who has the experience to implement all of those qualities and priorities.”
- After the vote, Folmer thanked the board for having the confidence in her to serve as the superintendent.
- “To set as my first and central priority are students and their academic, physical and social-emotional success; to be a wise steward of our limited financial resources and to encourage efficient and effective use of every dollar; and finally to treat our people, the team that serves our students, as our most precious resource of all, because they are,” Folmer said.
