Millbrae School Board President Welcomes New Superintendent

Press release from the Millbrae School District:

A Message from Board President Maggie Musa

Welcome Superintendent Debra French

Dear Millbrae Staff,

We are excited to announce that last night, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved Superintendent Debra French’s contract beginning July 1, 2020.

Ms. French has 28 years of experience in public education and has served as a teacher, principal, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and Superintendent. Ms. French is a native of Canada who moved to the United States at 3 years old. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications from California State University, Fullerton, and master’s degrees from the University of La Verne in Elementary Education and Organizational Management. She has been trained in numerous professional areas, including attending the ACSA Personnel Academy, The Personnel Institute, Cultural Proficiency training, Interest-Based Bargaining, Leadership for Chaotic Times, the Negotiators Symposium, and Professional Learning Communities training.

Currently, Debra is Superintendent of the Bassett Unified School District located in La Puente, California. The District is comprised of 9 schools from TK-Adult and educates nearly 4,000 students.

Prior to serving as a Superintendent in the District, Ms. French also served as Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services and as Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. Prior to that, she served as Principal of 2 schools in the Adelanto Elementary School District for 11 years.

We are excited to announce the choice of Debra French as our finalist. She is a proven leader who brings tremendous experience, educational background and great enthusiasm and excitement to serve us as our next District leader. The District conducted a nationwide search to ensure that we received applications from the best and brightest candidates available. The Board and our Leadership Associates Consultants, Eric Andrew and Rich Thome received applications from throughout the State, the Board reviewed 17 applicants prior to interviewing several finalists on May 9, 2020.

We wish Superintendent Phayprasert a warm farewell, he and Debra will be planning some transition time to better acclimate her to our wonderful district.

Please join me in welcoming Ms. Debra French as Millbrae’s new Superintendent.

Warm regards,

Maggie Musa

Board President

This press release was produced by the Millbrae School District. The views expressed here are the author's own.