Santa Clara Unified’s new superintendent, Dr. Stella Kemp, starts her new job on Monday.
The district’s board of trustees voted unanimously in late May for Kemp to replace current superintendent Stan Rose. Kemp has more than 30 years of public education experience, across a number of states, and has been superintendent of the nearby San Bruno Park School District for two years.
Santa Clara Unified School District serves more than 15,500 students in K-12, according to the district’s website. It covers the entire city of Santa Clara and neighborhoods in Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Cupertino.
Dr. Michele Ryan, president of the school board, said, “We are grateful that the district is in a place to attract a candidate of Dr. Kemp’s caliber.”
In a news release announcing her hiring, Kemp said, “I’m excited to join the Santa Clara Unified family, meet everyone and do my part to continue the upward momentum of the district.”
According to reports, Kemp will earn an annual base salary of $275,000 with opportunities for bonus pay.
In his farewell letter, outgoing superintendent Stan Rose said, “With a heart full of gratitude and an inward tear of sadness, I am taking my final leave of all of you and of education as a full time career. My gratitude begins here in Santa Clara where I have had the privilege of working with a wealth of cultural diversity, brilliant intellects, pockets of economic wealth beyond anything I have ever known, and daily kindness of spirit that few experience in the workplace.”
Rose added, “So, I end this the way I started, full of gratitude for the great gift I have been given, to work in education for these past 46 years.”