Anne Campbell appointed county superintendent
- June 17, 2010
Anne Campbell, who was elected to take the position earlier this month, will assume the position early after being appointed by the county Board of Education Wednesday night.
On June 16, the San Mateo County Board of Education appointed Anne Campbell as the county superintendent of schools effective Sept. 1. Current County Superintendent Jean Holbrook previously announced she would not seek re-election. Campbell ran unopposed for the seat, receiving 100 percent of the vote earlier this month. Holbrook decided to retire early, creating a vacancy between Sept. 1 and Jan. 3, when Campbell was supposed to take office.
Holbrook started as the county superintendent in 2006, after serving in a variety of other roles in the county office of education for 30 years.
“It has been a profound honor to serve as San Mateo County Superintendent and to work with the fine educators, board members and staff in this county. My decision to retire before the end of my term is a result of considering what I believe is in the best interests of the county office and my successor. A priority for me is to ensure a smooth transition, and I believe that transition can best be made at the beginning of the school year, rather than mid-year. San Mateo County is indeed fortunate that a leader of Anne Campbell¹s caliber has been elected to office and I am confident that she will be a superb County Superintendent of Schools,” Holbrook said in a prepared statement.
Campbell will be only the fourth woman to hold the position and the first openly gay person to serve in the capacity. Campbell, 61, currently serves as the superintendent of the Portola Valley Elementary School District. The Redwood City resident and her partner Michelle have four children between them — Catherine, a 29-year-old who recently completed medical school; Doug, a 24-year-old investment analyst; 13-year-old Hannah and 10-year-old Emma, both of whom attend Tierra Linda Middle School in San Carlos.
Campbell attended Scripps College in Southern California where she got a bachelor’s degree in American literature. She holds a graduate degree from Stanford University for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, known as STEP. She holds a counseling credential through California State University Hayward (now California State University East Bay).
Campbell worked for many years at Abbott Middle School in a variety of roles. In 1990, she became principal at Ralston Middle School in Belmont, a position Campbell held through ’97. In 1997, Campbell was asked to be superintendent of the Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District. Campbell took the same position at Portola Valley in 2003, which she’s held ever since.
Campbell will be sworn in at the Sept. 1 meeting of the county Board of Education.