New Fort Bragg Unified School District Superintendent Donald Armstrong said good local financial planning was one of the factors that attracted him to move north.
Armstrong, 54, will start on July 1, replacing the retiring Steve Lund. He has spent the last 30 years as an educator, from a stint driving a school bus to the past 15 years as a superintendent.
“In many ways it”s the pinnacle of my career. Each district I have worked in has been a little bigger, and this position will allow me to affect the entire process from kindergarten through graduation,” Armstrong said.
For the past six years, Armstrong has been superintendent of the Twin Hills Union School District, a Marin County K-8 district in Sebastopol.
“When I started out, I was a man with a big voice, so I ended up teaching middle school,” he said. That was in Ukiah. He got his bachelor”s degree at UC Berkeley, master”s degree from San Francisco State and then a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of La Verne in Southern California.
He was a teacher for 14 years, mostly in the primary grades.
The state budget begets crises, and the governor”s plan to enact deep cuts in education and other services, to avoid any tax hikes on business, will hit the district hard.
“This is a big issue, but unfortunately, those of us who have been in leadership positions for a long time are used to these kinds of crises,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong likes the financial moves the district has made to prevent disaster during budget cuts.
“Fort Bragg has made the changes necessary to make sure we are as ready as possible,” he said.
The district conducted an extensive and public superintendent search. While Armstrong was a candidate, he met with teachers and checked out school facilities and the Fort Bragg area, which he was already familiar with.
He and his wife enjoy Northern California and living near the coast.
“The biggest factor was the challenge that K-12 presents,” he said.
What is his biggest talent as superintendent?
“I would like to think it”s my enthusiasm and my integrity. I have been doing this job for a long time, I know a lot about being a superintendent, and district leadership … My working knowledge of schools, having worked in a variety of positions, driving the school bus at one point, is also an excellent resource”
Armstrong has been married to Kathryn LeMieux, a painter and syndicated cartoonist, for 28 years. Their son James is a graduate of University of Oregon and currently resides near Portland.
LeMieux is one of the six female comic artists who make the newspaper strip “Six Chix.” Each woman draws the strip on a different day (Ann on Thursday), and they alternate on Sundays. She also has her own newspaper strip, “Feral West,” and draws “Miss Adventures,” written by Matt Tolbert.
