Visalia Unified School District announces new superintendent

VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Visalia Unified School District welcomed their new leader, Superintendent Kirk Shrum, with open arms.

"Very excited about this opportunity to work alongside this amazing board, amazing district team and community focused on our students," he said.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the Visalia School board announced that they had unanimously agreed to hire Shrum.

Juan Guerrero, board president, says they took input from faculty, staff, students and the community very seriously.

He says Shrum's experience and goals made him the right fit.

"We have 43 schools, 28,000 students," he said. "We need good communication, good management."

Shurm has 25 years of educational and administrative experience. Ten of those are in district leadership roles.

His current role is chief school leadership officer with the Henry County School District in Georgia - home to 43,000 students.

Before that, he had several roles in multiple school districts dating back to 1997.

One El Diamante Senior says it's essential for their new leader to have an ear for students.

"One of the biggest things that meant a lot to me is that he is willing to communicate with the student body," says Nathan Torabi.

His first day will be July 1.

"We are going to do this work together," Kirk said. "We are going to do it in a way that honors each person, values their contributions and their uniqueness."