Former high school principal takes new position in school district

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers STARTING A NEW JOB—Jo-Ann Yoos, who was the principal at Thousand Oaks High School for nine years, has been appointed Conejo Valley Unified School District’s assistant superintendent of personnel services. Yoos is looking forward to new challenges. Meet Jo-Ann Yoos—again.

If your child attended Thousand Oaks High School in the past decade, you probably know her name. She was principal there for the last nine years.

Yoos was recently appointed Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) assistant superintendent of personnel.

Yoos has held various jobs the 26 years she’s been with the district. She began as a temporary English and science teacher at Los Cerritos Middle School. She went on to teach at Redwood Middle School. She then became an administrator at Redwood, and also served in that capacity at Los Cerritos and at Newbury Park and Westlake high schools. For about a year, Yoos was assistant superintendent of personnel, but she later jumped at the chance to become principal at Thousand Oaks High School.

“We’re very excited about having Mrs. Yoos return to a position that she had been in several years ago,” said Dr. Robert Fraisse, CVUSD superintendent. “And we appreciate her experience and her knowledge of the job, as she has a difficult job of following Dr. Dunlap.”

Jody Dunlap became superintendent of Oxnard Union High School District this summer.

As assistant superintendent, Yoos helps hire new administrators, teachers and classified employees. She verifies the credentials of teachers and makes certain they’re certified to teach their respective subjects. CVUSD only hires those with California teaching credentials.

On the job for only four weeks, Yoos found herself in a last-minute campaign of hiring new teachers.

“It’s ever-changing,” she said. “Every day is a little bit different.”

Yoos also is in charge of the Beginning Teachers Support Assessment (BTSA) program.

BTSA is five years old and enables experienced teachers to observe rookie instructors and offer suggestions.

Among the challenges facing Yoos is getting to know CVUSD’s personnel. As a high school principal, she couldn’t rub elbows with fellow administrators, teachers or staff––her counterparts in a total of 30 schools. In this position, however, she will.

Yoos vowed to help the district meet all of its state and federal requirements and help ease the load for department managers and administrators.

“If we can lessen their burden, then that’s what I’m here to do,” said Yoos.