MJUSD announces the new superintendent

Aug. 26—Marysville Joint Unified School District announced the hiring of a new superintendent on Tuesday during its scheduled school board meeting.

Arriving from Victor Valley Union High School District, Fal Asrani was named the new superintendent of MJUSD with a salary of $230,000. The board selected Asrani after an extensive search conducted by The Cosca Group.

"What I'm most looking forward to, really, is getting to know the people and the community," said Asrani. "There's so much tradition here, there's so much consistency. People are here for a long time. I think that itself lends to a good, solid next level of work."

Asrani looks forward to finding ways to highlight student success and the different programs within MJUSD, but is also ready to tackle the issues schools are working through amid a pandemic and the educational challenges it presents.

"I will agree that parents have their own needs for their children and so our job right now is to listen and to not take sides, but be very clear that we understand and hear everybody," said Asrani. "This is across California, not just Marysville, but we need to listen to our parents, both sides and keep an open mind."

As an educator for almost 30 years, Asrani has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Loma Linda University, a master's in special education from Chapman University and a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California. Asrani's last position was as assistant superintendent for the Victor Valley Union High School District.

The MJUSD board of trustees also reviewed the collected data on the facility feasibility of Foothill Intermediate School. The study of its aging infrastructure and indoor air quality is still continuing, but as of Aug. 9, the site tested for possible Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA). This means the school district would need to contract soil engineers to further inspect the site, said Joe Dixon, with Dixon Smart School House. Asbestos is a human carcinogen according to the World Health Organization, the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Other site observations presented to the board were stained ceiling tiles indicating water intrusion, lack of emergency lighting, lack of natural lighting and upgrading of a vinyl composition tile. The board of trustees will review the collected data along with possible funding sources to analyze the best possible way to approach the infrastructure challenges at Foothill Intermediate School.