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 Mark Capritto/Courtesy photo
Mark Capritto, an assistant principal at Calabasas High School in Los Angeles County, bested at least half a dozen candidates to succeed current principal Paul Turnbull, who has been promoted to an assistant superintendent position.
But the vote by the Santa Barbara school board Tuesday night to hire him wasn’t unanimous; it was 3-1, with one abstention.
Some board members cited concerns about what they perceived to be Capritto’s lack of experience, not only as a principal of a traditional high school, but also as a staff member of a school that, like Santa Barbara High, grapples with significant diversity issues.
Others, though, were impressed by Capritto’s pedigree: He holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of La Verne, and a master’s degree in marriage-and-family-therapy counseling from Cal State University, Northridge.
“He has the qualifications plus his attitude: He seemed like someone who has the initiative, who’s going to make positive changes,” said school board member Laura Malakoff.
Capritto, who couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday, is scheduled to begin working fulltime on July 26. He will make between $109,781 and $122,182, officials said.
School board member Bob Noel cast the only no vote. Annette Cordero, who sat on the committee that interviewed Capritto for the job, abstained.
Although they often find themselves at odds, Noel and Cordero saw eye-to-eye on at least one key point Tuesday: Both said Superintendent Brian Sarvis should have been present to answer questions. Sarvis was absent because he is vacationing in China. Capritto, meanwhile, is finishing his commitment in Calabasas.
Noel said he voted no because he is concerned about the lack of Capritto’s experience as a “principal of a comprehensive high school.
“His only experience as a principal at a high school is at a court school,” he said, referring to how Capritto is the former leader of Ventura County Court and Community Schools, which serve students housed in Ventura County’s Juvenile Justice Center.
Noel, known for his frequent lone votes of principled opposition, said he couldn’t vote yes without first having had the opportunity to ask Sarvis more questions.
“There’s just been such (principal) turnover at Santa Barbara High School, and the school certainly needs strong leadership,” he said.
Cordero, too, said she couldn’t vote yes without more information. But she said she couldn’t vote no without more information, either.
“I didn’t vote no because I was not opposed to him,” she said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable voting yes until I had some questions answered.”
Specifically, Cordero wanted to ask if Capritto seemed prepared to handle the challenging demographics of Santa Barbara High, which serves large numbers of students at both extremes of the economic spectrum.
At Santa Barbara High -- where the student population is about 53 percent Latino, 41 percent white and 6 percent “other -- one-in-three students come from low-income families. Another sizable number of students are from Montecito, one of the wealthiest communities in the United States.
By comparison, the student makeup of Calabasas High School – which was recently deemed by the state to be a “California Distinguished School” – is 80 percent white, and 4 percent Latino. Calabasas High is in the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
“His previous schools did not have a large Latino population, but I also felt he had some really good qualities,” Cordero said. “I was really torn.”
Cordero also said that Capritto -- a graduate of Ventura High School and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo -- came off as “a little bit subdued” during the interview.
“When we were interviewing him, he was serious, kind of quiet,” she said.
But Sarvis and Turnbull followed up on some references, and received excellent feedback, board members said. Plus, Sarvis and Turnbull spent some time with Capritto, and reported that “he was much more animated and outgoing,” Cordero said, adding, “sometimes people seem a little nervous when they are interviewed.”
School board member Nancy Harter voted yes, even though she didn’t participate in the interview process. But she said she trusts Sarvis’ judgment.
“I don’t hire and fire principals,” she said. “I hire and fire superintendents. They absolutely have to be making excellent choices.”
Has Sarvis delivered on this measure?
“I think, overall, yeah,” she said.
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