By Kathleen Acuff and Bruce Barton

Fischer

Rich Fischer, superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District for the past eight years, is leaving the district at the end of the school year, June 30. Fischer made his announcement official today.

Fischer, named the 2004 Los Altan of the Year last December, said he’ll be retiring at age 62 and a half to spend more time with his wife, Sheri, at their home in Mount Pleasant in the Sierra foothills. His wife, a landscape designer, is starting a nursery business, and Fischer wants to support her in that. He has been commuting for the past five years from Mountain View to the mountain community.

Fischer came to the district in 1997 from the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, where he was instrumental in the successful completion of a major facilities renovation program funded by a 1995 bond measure. While superintendent of MVLA, Fischer, his associate superintendent for business services, Joe White, and the district’s vigilant Construction Oversight Committee kept such close tabs on the renovation of the two comprehensive high schools that money was left over for projects not on the original list. With other funding, Alta Vista High School is getting its own building - the ribbon-cutting is Dec. 12 - and a multimedia academy will open its doors in the fall.

Fischer also has made a name on the local non-profit emcee circuit, gaining a reputation for his unique brand of stand-up comedy and crowd control.

“The district will sorely miss Rich and his leadership and his style,” said school board president David Williams. “Over the past eight or nine years, he really developed a style that’s Rich’s. He’s worked to enrich the strongest students and reach out to lowest-achieving students.”

It’s the students Fischer will miss most when he retires.

“I’m going to miss the activity, the kids - they’re what we’re here for. Almost every day there’s some story about some kid that’s having success, and that’s huge for me,” he said.

Williams said Fischer had hinted at retirement over the past year. “We were hoping it would be reversed, but we knew he was leaning this way last year,” he said.

Board members begin informally interviewing consultants to help in the search for a new superintendent next month.

“We don’t want to drag the process out too long,” Williams said. “We’d like someone in place by mid-April or early May so they can spend time with Rich before he leaves.”

“We said we wanted someone for at least five years,” said board member Judy Hannemann, who was on the board that hired Fischer. “There was no formal commitment, but (Fischer) said from the start that he’d be with us until he retired. Believe me, we’re all sorry he’s going. He’s been just wonderful for us.”