[BHS etree] SUPT: Berkeley School Board Names New Superintendent

[bhs at idiom.com]

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY to the etree, contact Mark Coplan
[mailto:Mark_Coplan at berkeley.k12.ca.us]

News Release 

December 19, 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact: Mark Coplan
Public Information Officer: 510-472-3811

Berkeley School Board Names New Superintendent

In a Special Meeting, the Berkeley Board of Education announced the
appointment of Mr. William Huyett as the District's new Superintendent
of Berkeley schools. Incoming Superintendent Huyett will replace
outgoing Superintendent, Michele Lawrence, who earlier announced her
plans for retirement effective Feb 2, 2008. 

Superintendent William Huyett has worked in public education since
1974 where he began his career teaching high school mathematics in the
Elk Grove School District. In that same district he served as both a
middle and high school principal for several years before moving to
the Assistant Superintendent level.  He became a Superintendent in
1996 for the Dixon Unified School District, in Dixon California. After
four years he moved to Lodi Unified where he has been serving as
superintendent for the past seven years in a system with a student
enrollment of 25,000.

While in Lodi Unified Mr. Huyett has taken an active role in
addressing the issues related to diversity and the inequities of
achievement, and he has increased the hiring of underrepresented
teachers from 14% to 33%. He provided leadership and supervision in
the building of eight new schools and has overseen a district budget
twice the size of Berkeley's. Mr.

Huyett holds a BA degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University
of Virginia, and a Masters Degree in Mathematics from that same
University.

In an interview with the Stockton Record (Dec. 18, 2007) Board
President Ken Davis said of Huyett, "Bill has done a good job, and we
will be sorry to see him go. He made a lot of strides here. When we
hired him, we were looking for someone that could help this district
grow. We liked that he had a background in engineering and understood
financing." Lodi Board Trustee Peter Johnson told the Stockton Record,
"I think you have to look at what Bill's done, and his legacy is not
hard to identify. The most significant thing to me is that he's always
had a policy of open communication. Whether you agree or disagree with
the direction he wants to take, he always leaves room for
communication." 

Berkeley's Board President, John T. Selawsky, led a delegation to
visit the Lodi District, and expressed excitement about what he saw
and heard from the staff and community in Lodi. "Bill was one of
several strong finalists and our visit confirmed we made the right
choice." 

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Mark A. Coplan
Public Information Officer, BUSD
510-644-6320
Mark_Coplan at berkeley.k12.ca.us
Berkeley Unified School District
2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, Ca 94704-1180