School Official Takes New Job in Nevada

A top administrator in the Simi Valley Unified School District resigned Wednesday to take the top school job in Nevada’s capital.

Assistant Supt. Leon Mattingley, who has overseen personnel for Ventura County’s largest school district since 1990, leaves Simi Valley in June to become superintendent of the Carson City School District.

Mattingley, who began his career in education as a sixth-grade teacher in Oxnard in 1965, praised the 18,800-student Simi Valley district and the city.

“I am very proud to have worked with this board and staff and a community that is so supportive of education,” he said. “But the opportunity for promotion is one you can’t pass up, and you have to [go] where the jobs are.”

Board members said they regretted seeing Mattingley leave the district but congratulated him on his success. “We were all rooting for him to get the position,” said board President Judy Barry.

Mattingley, who has served as Simi Valley’s top negotiator at bargaining sessions with employee unions, is considered a fair administrator, said Alan Coyle, a representative of the union representing classified employees.

Mattingley will head a district of 8,000 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The Carson City district also provides classes to inmates of a nearby prison, teaching adults English as a second language, computer skills and classes needed to earn a high school diploma.

Mattingley, who came to the district just as state revenues were shrinking, said his biggest challenge in Simi Valley was trying to compensate teachers fairly in a falling economy.

At the new district, Mattingley said his challenges will be in finding the financial means to build enough schools and facilities for a student population that is growing 4% per year. He said the district will probably need a bond measure to get computers and other technology into classrooms.