Dear Laguna Beach USD Students, Families, Staff, and Community,

I am honored and excited to begin serving as your Superintendent!

Following the Board’s approval of my contract, I want to express my deep appreciation for the trust placed in me to help lead our district forward. With 25 years in education at every system level, from classrooms to state leadership, I have always believed it is important to be deeply invested in and part of the community I serve. While I have most recently been working in Michigan and my family has remained in Kentucky, we are now thrilled to be making our home in Laguna Beach. Our children, Norah and Chase, will proudly attend LBUSD schools this fall, and we are grateful to join a community so deeply committed to the success of its students and to building on the tradition of excellence LBUSD has established.

On recent visits to all four of our schools, I saw firsthand what makes Laguna Beach Unified truly exceptional. I met enthusiastic and caring educators and staff, engaged and remarkable young people, and compassionate professional administrators who clearly love their work. The learning I observed was rigorous, experience-driven, and exactly the kind of work that will prepare LBUSD graduates to succeed in a rapidly changing world. This commitment to vibrant, meaningful learning drew me to LBUSD in the first place.

I recognize the period of significant change and division our district has experienced. I step into this role ready to continue learning and understanding how to best serve our schools and community. There are deep feelings and strongly held perspectives within our governing board and the broader community. While this transition period has not been easy, I am encouraged by the Board’s unanimous support and the shared desire across our community to move forward together.
I have spent time getting to know our Board members and listening to their aspirations for our students and schools. I respect and appreciate the perspectives each member brings to their role because they represent the voices and values of our community. Most importantly, I know we are all here for the same reason—to serve the students, staff, and families of Laguna Beach with integrity, care, and purpose.

There are real differences and perspectives in our community that we must bridge, but our differences are rooted in care, not conflict. Everyone I have met in Laguna Beach genuinely cares about this community and its schools and wants them to thrive. In a world that is often fiercely divided, that is something to be grateful for.

Over the next several weeks, I will engage with our community—meeting with staff, students, and local partners this summer, and with families in the fall—to listen, learn, and begin shaping a shared roadmap for the future of our schools. These efforts will culminate in a public report in early October that outlines strengths, identifies opportunities, and proposes a path forward we can rally around.

Four major commitments will guide this entry work:

• Unifying Our District and Community
  I will work with our Board, staff, and partners to establish shared goals and build trust. My aim is not to take sides— I am here to work for and with everyone to foster a collective sense of purpose that puts students first and models the respectful, student-centered culture we want our young people to experience.
• Elevating and Supporting Our Talented Staff
  Laguna Beach has some of the finest educators and support professionals anywhere. The district enjoys low staff turnover and a strong applicant pool that didn’t happen by accident. I will champion our staff, ensure they are valued and heard, and work to make LBUSD an employer for whom they truly love working.
• Listening Broadly and Leading Responsively
  I believe leadership starts with listening and understanding. That’s why I’ll prioritize conversations across our schools and neighborhoods, ensuring every voice – students, staff, families, and community members – can help shape our direction.
• Celebrating and Strengthening Our Small-District Advantage
  LBUSD’s size gives us something rare in public education: the ability to know every child, innovate quickly, and offer deeply personalized learning. We’ll build on this by nurturing a culture of excellence and belonging, powered by the extraordinary talent and passion that defines this community.

A key part of our shared path forward will be continuing to align our work with the LBUSD Learner Profile – a vision of the competencies we want every graduate to develop. These include being:

• A Constructive Collaborator: Students listen and contribute ideas, perspectives, and experiences to cultivate a learning community with shared trust and accountability.
• An Empowered Learner: Students maximize potential by setting goals, leading with purpose, embracing challenges, and being resilient. 
• A Creative Problem Solver: Students approach learning opportunities with curiosity, creativity, and innovative solutions.
• An Empathetic Citizen: Students make a positive impact on the local and global community by modeling personal, civic, social, and global responsibility.
• An Effective Communicator: Students actively listen, strive to understand others, and seek to be understood. 

This learner-centered vision will anchor our work in the months and years ahead, continuing to shape how we design instruction, support staff, and measure progress. Many districts have learner profiles like these; our work is to make learning experiences that develop these competencies a hallmark of the LBUSD experience, so that we prepare our graduates for the fast-moving, globally interconnected, and technologically evolving world they will inherit.

Laguna Beach Unified has a proud history, and if we can recommit ourselves to a shared purpose, a powerful future.

With deep gratitude,
  
 Jason E. Glass, Ed.D.
 Superintendent
 Laguna Beach Unified School District