HUNTINGTON BEACH : Vote Set on Contract for Superintendent

The Huntington Beach Union High School District board has called a special meeting for today to approve contract terms for the new district superintendent, David Hagen.

The four-year contract that trustees will consider is retroactive to Aug. 1, when Hagen succeeded Lawrence Kemper.

Hagen’s salary will not be disclosed until the contract is adopted. When Kemper stepped down after four years at his post to become superintendent of the Baldwin Park Unified School District, he was earning $98,270 per year.

Hagen, 46, joined the district in 1969 as a teacher at Fountain Valley High School, where he later became principal. He was then promoted to director of personnel, and served as the district’s assistant superintendent for business services before the board appointed him superintendent last month.

Upon taking over his new duties, Hagen stepped into a leading role in the controversy surrounding the board’s adoption and subsequent reversal of a property fee that would have raised money for school maintenance.

At his first board meeting as superintendent this week, Hagen joked, “This is my first meeting, but it feels like I’ve been here a year.”