After officially accepting the resignation of Superintendent Larry Powell at its meeting Thursday, the Fresno County Board of Education voted 3 to 2 in favor of appointing deputy Superintendent Jim Yovino to take over as superintendent of schools until the end of the current term, which expires in December 2014.
"Oh my goodness, do I feel like I have big shoes to fill? Yes, I mean two legends Dr. Mehas and now Larry Powell and now me. I mean I am honored to take this position," Yohino said.
Powell said he is pleased with the action of the board because it provides stability and continuous leadership to the Fresno County Office of Education, but two members, Delbert Cedarquist and Barbara Thomas, felt the board should interview other potential candidates.
"We were only given since last Wednesday to make a consideration and I did not see the need to do it today," Thomas said.
Yovino has served as deputy superintendent for the last seven years.
The 52-year old Fresno native graduated from Fresno Pacific University with a masters of arts in education and has held positions from classroom teacher to principal in Fresno, Dinuba and Central Unified School Districts.
When asked what he'd like to accomplish in his new role in July he says: "I have a lot of things I'd like to tackle and one of those things is our dropout rate and the number of kids who become disengaged in school."
As well as work with disabled and at risk students. And he has plans to roll out new mentoring programs for the community once he's sworn in on June 20th.
