The Post first published this story on May 15. Since then, our competitors have lifted our story. Please support original local journalism.
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.
One edit:
Just be glad Austin is gone.