Interim FUHS superintendent, assistant start work

Fallbrook Union High School District’s new interim superintendent, Dr. Lou Obermeyer, started work Jan. 7 beginning a term that will see her leading the district through the end of March.

By then, Obermeyer said, the district hopes to have a permanent superintendent in place.

“I am actually going to move out of the area in April,” Obermeyer said. “When I said yes, I told (the district) I will help them out through March. That was our initial conversation. We are hopeful the new superintendent will be hired by then, but we don’t have a timeline in place.”

Obermeyer replaces Dr. Hugo Pedroza who left the district in December after the elections in November overhauled the school board.

“Obviously, the elections for board membership changed the makeup of the board, and I felt that this would be an appropriate time for me to step aside and let the new folks – the new majority – kind of do what they want to do," said Pedroza at the time. "I wish them nothing but the best."

Pedroza asked the board to terminate without cause his employment agreement with the district, and in closed session Nov. 26, the board executed the termination.

Pedroza, per the terms of his employment agreement, received a year's salary in severance pay. His last day as superintendent was Dec. 7.

After retiring as Superintendent of the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District in 2014, Obermeyer served as interim superintendents for the Alvord Unified School District, Warner Unified School District, and Julian Union High School District over the last few years.

Before her stint in Valley Center, which began in 2006, she served for two years as superintendent at the Atwater Elementary School District and assistant superintendent for the Perris Union High School District.

Obermeyer was the Regional Administrator for the Riverside County Office of Education from 1998-2000, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Temecula Valley Unified School District from 1997-98 and served as assistant principal and principal at the Alvord Unified School District prior.

She was named ACSA California Superintendent of the Year in 2011.

Obermeyer said she is looking forward to working with FUHSD.

“Fallbrook is a wonderful community and I am happy to assist the district as they move forward during this transitional period,” she said.

She also recommended the hiring of an interim assistant superintendent to fill the vacancy left by Dr. Jose Iniguez, who left to accept a position outside of the district.

Shannon Hargrave will assume the role.

“When the assistant superintendent resigned, it was my recommendation to hire an assistant,” Obermeyer said. “With the ratification of her contract (Monday night), she will be here through the end of April.”

Hargrave retired at the end of the school year in 2018 from the San Pasqual Union School District, where she served as principal and superintendent.

Hargrave began teaching at Vista Unified School District, move on to become an administrator for Escondido Union School District and Valley Center Pauma Unified School District, before taking the lead at SPUSD in 2013.