The #1 School District Picked Up Our Ex

LBUSD used Palo Alto to validate Austin. Palo Alto turned around and validated Glass.

Despite what you may have heard, Laguna Beach Unified and Palo Alto Unified did not officially swap superintendents.

LBUSD pushed out Dr. Jason Glass, then hired Dr. Don Austin, the former superintendent of Palo Alto Unified. A few weeks later, Palo Alto selected Glass as its next superintendent.

It is not a formal trade, but it sure feels like one. And that makes the comparison hard to ignore.

When Austin was announced in Laguna Beach, the district leaned hard on his Palo Alto résumé. The message was not subtle: LBUSD had landed a superintendent from one of California’s top-ranked school districts. Board President Sheri Morgan called the hire a win for Laguna Beach.

Then, the same school district that had been used to validate Austin turned around and chose Glass.

So now the question is not just who Laguna hired, it is what Laguna thought it was buying.

At the March 6, 2025, superintendent search meeting, LBUSD named values and desired qualities for its next superintendent. They were not framed as a single, clear, defining priority, but rather as a broad composite: experienced, ethical, student-centered, collaborative, innovative, communicative, humble, and able to work with a divided or newly configured board.

Howard Hills wanted proven executive experience and a demonstrated record of success that could be explained, sustained, corroborated, and substantiated. He also named ethical high standards.

Jim Kelly wanted someone “sane, even-handed, and collaborative.” Dee Perry wanted someone who truly cared about students and staff, had a record of success, understood how that success happened, and did not have a “really big ego.” Joan Malczewski emphasized communication, accessibility, empathy, engagement, vision, innovation, and collaboration.

Sheri Morgan said she wanted humility, innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, honesty, collaboration, and someone who understood that LBUSD schools are not a “little bubble,” but part of a larger community.

So, when Morgan later suggested the criteria stayed the same, the obvious question is whether Austin clearly met that same profile.

After everything that happened at Palo Alto Unified, does Austin’s full record match the values LBUSD said it wanted? Proven experience, yes. But what about steadiness? Collaboration? Humility? Staff trust? Communication? The ability to work through board tension without becoming part of it?

“From the #1 school district” is a résumé line, not an answer.

Palo Alto appears to have been clear about what it wanted in its next superintendent: a leader who listens, rebuilds trust, supports students and staff, and understands the needs of the whole community. PAUSD also has a publicly stated commitment to LGBTQ+ students and inclusive school environments.

That makes Glass’s selection notable. Glass has been a visible education leader on student inclusion, whole-child development, and LGBTQ+ student rights. Palo Alto did not seem confused about what kind of leader it wanted.

Which raises the question Laguna Beach School Board still has not fully answered: what kind of district are you trying to build?

When Glass was selected by LBUSD, the public rationale aligned with the search profile. Dee Perry said Glass had championed student-centered learning, innovation, and whole-child development. The district pointed to experiential learning, early college access, innovation and instruction, and artificial intelligence. The search was described as a four-month nationwide process. Perry emphasized the Board was “100% behind Dr. Jason Glass.”

That statement did not exactly age well.

The public pitch for Austin focused more on experience, rankings, prior ties to Laguna, and familiarity with the community. Those are not meaningless; Austin has real experience throughout California and was once the principal of Laguna Beach High School. His children even attended LBUSD schools.

But experience is not the same thing as values. A résumé is not a vision. And “he came from the #1 district” gets more awkward when the #1 district immediately hires the superintendent Laguna paid to leave.

The contract comparison does not make this story cleaner.

At the June 4, 2026, meeting, the framing around Austin’s contract seemed to suggest LBUSD had negotiated a less expensive agreement than Glass’s. That may work if the comparison stays narrow and mostly first-year, as Glass’s Laguna Beach contract included visible recruitment costs: relocation, temporary housing, and mentor support.

But Glass moved his young family across the country into one of California’s most expensive housing markets. He had every right to negotiate those terms, and the Board had every right to reject them. Instead, they approved his agreement 5-0.

So if we are going to talk about Glass’s contract, we should also talk about the Board that approved it.

Over the full four-year structure, Austin’s LBUSD agreement is not cheaper.

To note, health benefits are excluded because the public does not know which plan or coverage level either superintendent selected.

Glass’s contract had the obvious first-year recruitment costs. Still, Austin’s contract has quieter costs built into the structure: a higher base salary, a recurring annuity contribution, and optional paid days.

The daily-rate comparison is sharper.

Austin is paid more per required workday because his salary is spread over fewer required days. His agreement says he receives no vacation days, which sounds disciplined until you notice his required work year is already 21 days shorter than Glass’s.

Austin’s agreement also allows up to five additional paid workdays each year at his current daily rate, which adds about $10,044.64 per year, or $40,178.56 over four years. If his salary is increased or if additional paid days beyond those five are ever authorized, the cost will rise even further.

That comparison is especially hard to ignore, given that teachers and classified employees are looking at a 1% raise in 2026-27 and some healthcare premium increases that will eat into that gain. If staff is being asked to absorb that reality, LBUSD should be able to explain why its superintendent contract needed a $450k salary, a 4% annuity, fewer required workdays, and optional paid additional days.

The Palo Alto comparison adds one more twist.

Glass’s proposed PAUSD agreement has a lower base salary than Austin’s LBUSD agreement. However, PAUSD’s contract also recognizes the real cost of recruiting a superintendent into a high-cost area: housing support, moving expenses, paid transition days, and, like Austin, annuity and optional additional paid days.

So the story is not “Glass had more perks, and Austin did not,” it is that superintendent contracts hide costs in different places. Glass’s contracts show the cost of recruiting someone into an expensive community. Austin’s LBUSD contract shows the cost of paying a higher salary over fewer required workdays, with recurring add-ons.

The leadership stories are just as intertwined.

In Laguna, Glass’s exit felt board-driven by the constant employee-review items, the public tension, the healthcare audit blame-shifting, and the speed of his separation. All of that created the impression of a superintendent being squeezed out.

In Palo Alto, Austin’s exit had a different texture. His tenure included strong district performance, but also repeated public controversy and strained relationships. His departure looked less like a sudden collapse and more like a relationship that had worn down.

Now Laguna has Austin. Palo Alto has Glass. So yes, this means I will be watching closely at both performances this year.

Which superintendent can stabilize a board? Which one can keep staff? Which one can build trust? Which one can improve student outcomes without reducing children to test scores? Which one can protect whole-child development, inclusion, and the daily experience of students and staff?

And for LBUSD, the more immediate questions are simple.

If the search criteria stayed the same, how did the Board evaluate Austin against the qualities it named in March 2025? Where was the public discussion of collaboration, humility, staff trust, student-centered leadership, communication, and the ability to work within a strained governance environment? Did LBUSD weigh the end of Austin’s time in Palo Alto against those criteria, or did the “#1 school district” label do most of the work?

Laguna Beach did not just hire a résumé; we hired a leadership style, a history, and a contract.

If the LBUSD Board believes Austin is worth more than Glass over the long term, it should say why plainly. Not just that he came from Palo Alto, or that he knows Laguna, or that he is experienced.

What problem was he hired to solve?

What values are he expected to protect?

How will our Board measure success beyond rankings, optics, and politics?

Because the district LBUSD used to sell Austin just chose Glass. If the #1 school district picked up our ex, Laguna residents are allowed to ask what Palo Alto saw that our own Board chose not to keep.

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