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Don Austin, who was paid $596,802 to step down as Palo Alto school superintendent, has been hired by the Laguna Beach Unified School District.
Sheri Morgan, president of the Laguna Beach school board, said in a statement that Austin was in “high demand” by districts when he exited the Palo Alto schools.
Austin, after eight years as superintendent, left the Palo Alto Unified School District following a “mutual agreement” with the Board of Education announced on Feb. 20, 2026. The agreement stopped Austin from suing the district. It called for him to serve as “Superintendent Emeritus” through June 30.
Coincidentally, the Laguna Beach district removed its last superintendent, Jason Glass, by means of a separation agreement.
Laguna Beach, in announcing Austin’s hiring, said the Palo Alto schools “ranked as the #1 school district in California during five of his nearly eight years of service.”
Austin is familiar with Laguna Beach. He previously served as principal of Laguna Beach High School.
It is no wonder that public school education is in such bad shape in California. The superintendent gigs are like a little club to belong to, as soon as your time is up at one district on to the next leaving all the baggage behind to be cleaned up. Austin is like a cockroach, he just creates baggage wherever he goes not caring whose lives he has destroyed and just takes his show to the next district. By the way, those Niche ratings are because of the kids, aka the cliental and has absolutely nothing to do with Don Austin. PAUSD has always been a great district because of the kids and students and parental involvement. Don Austin, the used car salesman that he is, just seized upon those ratings to look good for his own self interest. Only in education can a sup leave the district facing 11 lawsuits, paid a single teacher 3.25 million for major screwups on his watch, and end up with another gig. What a raquet! Now I’m interested to see how fast his buddy Trent gets hired by Laguna Beach.
Surely you mean “what a racket”. Unless you are referring to Nick Raquet, who I am sure does not know or care about PAUSD.
Also the dates are interesting. The Laguna Beach superintendent’s review process started in February around the same time when Don was relieved from PA. They relieved the superintendent on May 13th and hired Don on May 15th. With all the board rules, this should have been imposible
That’s because our corrupt board majority regularly violates the Brown Act.
Agreed… we need to get rid of the establishment board members who have been pushing their political agenda. We already moved in the right direction last election by defeating the two candidates supported by the establishment. I feel the changes we are seeing now is the result of the change in guard in the board. The work is not complete since there are two new board members coming up in the next election in which one candidate is propped up by the establishment
Good luck suckers!
I assume that the Laguna Beach school board looked carefully at his record in Palo Alto and concluded that the problems there were mostly the fault of the PA board and the community culture.
The Laguna Beach school board was not transparent in the hiring process. They fired their superintendent who was loved by staff, students and parents on May 13th and hired Don Austin on May 15th
Laguna has the most dysfunctional board in California. Austin sounds like he will fit right in. The question is, who will eat who first? Sad supers like this exist.
Just be glad Austin s gone. Learn from his malfeasance and make sure the next Sup is held to much higher standards by the board. It is still a mystery as to why Austin was not held to high standards, but most of that school board is gone now. Perfect time for a fresh start.
I feel sorry for Laguna Beach. If they know what they are getting, that is sad. If they don’t know, that is sad too. Either way, Austin just sees this as another “Simple Win” for himself.
Don was a great Sup. He did exactly what the board that hired him to do. That is why he got such favorable terms on his way out. It was the board that hired him that was bad who pushed their political agenda.
What was their political agenda?
One edit:
Just be glad Austin is gone.
I have to somewhat agree with SKP but when it came to the Pete Colombo situation Don looked the other way when he knew after a little time that Colombo was being railroaded but refused to show character and integrity by standing up to Michelle Dauber and Kenny Dauber and the AGENDA of all men are guilty. On top of that he failed the course Superintendent 101 which says you never, ever bad mouth an employee in the paper. How you call him a great sup is beyond me when on his watch the district payed out the biggest settlement in the history of PAUSD, one of the biggest retaliation amounts in California History, and had 11 pending lawsuits when he was asked to step down, aka= FIRED! True, great leaders show integrity and character even when it is not convenient.
Also, come on SKP he got money to go away to: keep his mouth shut and not reveal how the board and Daubers pushed him to fulfill their agendas. You cannot be that naive: money equals silence!
What did the board hire Austin to do and how was he great at that? Any thoughts SKP? If so, please expound. From my angle he was hired to:
1. Intimidate outspoken stakeholders and staff thus squashing dissent.
2. Weaken and enfeeble the unions.
3. Promote homogeneous instruction and grading.
4. Discourage high achievement.
6. Line his own pockets with a side business and crony vendors if he saw fit.
7. Prioritize faux achievements like Niche ratings.
8. Control the narrative through various propaganda channels.
9. Placate powerful political forces even if it degraded the quality of instruction.
Please feel free SKP to refute my claims, and to solidify yours. However, if what you are saying is that he was successful at all of the above, well then who paid the price? Not so sure Austin did so.
Skipped 5 on my list. Sorry. Please correct since there are some harsh critics out there who may seize on that proofing error.
Mark is still mad about Evidence Based Grading. Mark does not care that Evidence Based Grading is a statewide push being adopted by most public districts in the state to promote equity in grading. Don must be evil for being one of those willing to pioneer equitable grading that separates personal bias and behavior grading from proficiency. It should be a good thing for students whether you agree with Austin personally or not. Your personal beliefs about evidence based grading doesn’t mean it is not being adopted at the state level. We’ve discussed this before and I understand how you felt slighted by it, but it’s not a personal attack on you or any other educator. It is just aiming to make sure that all students can realistically achieve proficiency without their behaviors (which are assessed differently by different teachers) getting in the way of their academic achievement.
I don’t know, Mark. I’d say really evaluate if your concerns with evidence based grading are rooted in concern for student achievement or in resentment for being told the old way wasn’t cutting it anymore. Wishing you well as always.
Hopefully silly goosery doesn’t see any errors in my post. I’m sure I forgot a comma or to capitalize a word or something.