ORANGE : Interim School Chief Interested in Staying

The revolving door that seems to be affixed to the superintendent’s office in the Orange Unified School District may yet sweep interim head Marilyn Corey back into office.

Corey, who submitted her resignation Thursday night after clashing with board members in closed session, said in her first interview since then that she would consider staying on in the troubled district if board members request it.

Corey is the eighth superintendent to occupy the district’s top administrative post since 1989. She submitted her resignation, effective May 1. The district has been without a permanent school superintendent for nearly two years and is in the midst of a search for a superintendent.

And with the sudden withdrawal last week of a highly touted candidate for superintendent, district officials now have no idea when a permanent superintendent might be hired.

“We have a lot of fires to put out,” board member James Fearns said. “Marilyn is a proven quantity. We know she can do the job.”

Corey said in the interview on Tuesday that “if the board said it needed me, I would say I’d be happy to talk about it.”

Board President Maureen Aschoff said she has already met with Corey about her status, and said Corey might be asked to stay on past May 1 until a permanent superintendent can be found.

“We are still in conversation with Ms. Corey,” Aschoff said. “So nothing has been finalized yet.”

Aschoff said she will encourage other board members to talk to Corey, and hopes Corey’s status can be determined in a closed session hearing on April 28.

Corey was appointed interim superintendent in July, coming here from a school district in Hermosa Beach.

The imminent departure of Corey, who has been in office since July, would add to the district’s many problems. The threat of a strike by 1,160 non-teaching employees hangs over the sprawling, 26,000-student system. The employees are working under a board-imposed contract that they oppose.

In addition, the district remains embroiled in costly disciplinary hearings in which three top school administrators are accused of sexual harassment.

Corey described as the “last straw” sharp differences she had with board members Thursday night concerning paying the district’s attorneys in the sexual harassment hearings. The board delayed her request that the attorney’s current bill be paid.

In addition, she said, a heavy workload, continuing frustration with some board members and an apparent successor waiting in the wings had already prompted her to prepare her resignation before Thursday night.

“When you sustain a workload of 12 to 20 hours a day in an often stressful, often negative atmosphere, it’s a real personal sacrifice,” Corey said. “I just came to the conclusion that I wasting my time and the board’s.”

If Corey stays, she said she will need “clear direction” from the school board, but she will understand if she is not asked to stay.

“I took the job as an interim, that means a substitute. You know you’re not going to be around forever,” she said.

“I’ve had the distinct pleasure of having around me a team of professionals that I could trust and who bought into the concept of teamwork,” she added. “We were pulling the same wagon, and we were getting the job done.”