Superintendent Doris Wilson
By LESTER CHANG
Sunnyvale Elementary School District Superintendent Doris Wilson resigned her post last week to become the new superintendent of the Desert Sands Unified School District in Riverside County.
"I love it here, but my reasons for leaving are tied to career growth," said Wilson before she submitted her resignation at a board meeting March 20.
Her resignation becomes effective May 2.
Wilson plans to take the reins of the new district May 19. Desert Sands consists of 23 schools serving 21,000 K-12 students. The SESD has 5,900 K-8 students.
Board members said they will miss Wilson, who has led the SESD since November 1993. They credited her with reducing absenteeism and improving academic performance during her tenure.
"She will definitely be missed," said board president Bill McDowell. "Her conduct has been highly professional, and she has put in a phenomenal amount of time on her job. She is a doer."
The board plans to launch a nationwide search for Wilson's replacement. At a special meeting on March 17, the board appointed board members Linda Kilian and Peggy Quillinan to an ad hoc committee to consider search firms for the next superintendent.
The board hopes to find Wilson's successor by or before Nov. 1, McDowell said.
Wilson, one of 40 finalists for the Desert Sands position, accepted the job offer on March 18. Wilson has been an educator for 35 years and has a doctorate in education administration from USC.
In an interview with The Sun, Wilson said developing a curriculum to improve reading, language and mathematics was one of the high points of her 3 1/2 years with the SESD.
National test scores for grades 2-8 have improved since 1995, she said. Third-grade students achieved scores at the 66th percentile level in 1996, up from the 62nd percentile in 1995.
Academic performance improved partly because her staff kept in contact with parents when their children didn't attend school, Wilson said.
During this school year, 98 percent of the students regularly attend school, up from 95 percent from 1994 to 1996.
The availability of medical and tutorial services at the Columbia Neighborhood Center also has helped reduce absenteeism among students at Columbia Middle School and Bishop, Lakewood and San Miguel elementary schools, she said.
The center was built at a cost of more than $3 million through a partnership involving the city of Sunnyvale, the school district and Advanced Micro Devices.
Wilson also pushed for passage of a $34 million bond to upgrade and renovate the district's schools and to improve the Internet capabilities of the district. The bond was passed by 85 percent of the voters.
Wilson, parents and district employees knocked on doors of homes and asked residents to support the measure.
Wilson got into teaching because of her mother, who taught in a one-room classroom in Lebanon, Mo., in the mid-1930s. At age 19, Wilson started her teaching career in the same school.
She consulted her mother, now 84, before she took the new job in Riverside County.
"She was the first person I called," Wilson said. "I don't make a move without her."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 26, 1997.
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