By Mary O’KEEFE

Community meetings begin tonight to gather input from the public on the characteristics, attributes, and skills that the next GUSD superintendent should possess, according to a GUSD statement. The first meeting is being held at Crescenta Valley High School MacDonald Auditorium in the 4400 block of Ramsdell Ave. in La Crescenta.

The next meeting will be on July 22 at the Toll Middle School auditorium and the third and final meeting will be held on July 28 at the Roosevelt Middle School auditorium.

All meetings begin at 6 p.m. All community members are welcome to attend any of the meetings.

As the hunt for a new superintendent continues, the Glendale Unified School District is under the capable, and familiar, guidance of Dr. Donald Empey.

Empey is serving as interim superintendent. He is no stranger to GUSD.

“I spent 25 years as deputy superintendent at Glendale,” he said.

When Empey started at the district he first served with Superintendent Burtis Taylor, who served from 1968 to 1982, then with Superintendent Dr. Robert Sanchis and finally with Superintendent James Brown.

When he retired from the district in 2001, he went to Cal State Northridge where he was a professor of education administration until 2009.

Empey, in fact, taught many of the staff now serving in the administration office.

“It has been a pleasure for me to get back into the swing of things. I like GUSD and I appreciate the people here,” he said. “I look forward to coming to work.”

Empey has lived in La Crescenta since 1976 and knows the area and the schools well. He said coming back to GUSD was not difficult and things are fairly similar to when he served as deputy superintendent.

“I was able to pick up as if I had [never left],” he said. “It’s like coming home.”

Empey estimates the hunt for a new superintendent will take about three months.

For more information, visit www.gusd.net.

  Mary Okeefe