The Fremont Union High School District will start the new school year with a new schools chief. Joe Hamilton is the unanimous choice of the board of trustees of the Fremont Union High School District to replace retiring superintendent Mary Panucci.
Hamilton, who was associate superintendent of administrative services in the district, assumed the superintendent’s position Aug. 1.
The high school district includes approximately 100 students from Los Altos enrolled at Homestead High School.
Hamilton said his first priority is to come to a contract settlement with district teachers, in what has become a difficult and drawn-out contract dispute. “The process is well under way,” he said. “I have confidence it will reach its culmination before school begins.”
Hamilton’s second priority will be “healing the wounds of a protracted contract dispute.” Those wounds affect not just administration and teachers, but parents and students, he said.
Upgrading district facilities is also a priority for the new superintendent. “Like Mountain View-Los Altos, we’re facing a situation where our facilities are very old and our infrastructure needs attention,” Hamilton said. A committee is already studying options for financing needed repairs.
“Hamilton is a strong instructional leader who, as a teacher, principal and district administrator, has been recognized for innovative and effective instructional programs,” said Randy Okamura, president of the board of trustees, in announcing Hamilton’s appointment July 29. “He is highly respected for his involvement in a wide spectrum of the community including relationships with business partnerships, city chambers and city governments.”
An educator since 1963, Hamilton taught for 17 years in the Gilroy and New Haven unified school districts, followed by several administrative positions in the New Haven district. During his five-year tenure in the Fremont district, Hamilton provided leadership in developing more than 100 business and agency partnerships. He established the Fremont Union High Schools Foundation and led the effort to privately fund the Teens With Tots Center and program. Active in the community, he just finished a year as president of the Sunnyvale Rotary Club.
