Veteran leader selected to be next assistant superintendent of human resources

The Irvine Unified School District has tapped a versatile and veteran educator to serve as the next assistant superintendent in charge of human resources. Eamonn O’Donovan, who currently oversees human resources operations for the Los Alamitos Unified School District, has been appointed to replace Terry Walker, who will assume the role of IUSD superintendent on July 1.

“We could not be more pleased to welcome such a well respected and dynamic leader to continue this district’s tradition of hiring and retaining the best teachers, administrators and classified staff,” said Superintendent Gwen Gross, who will retire at the end of the school year. “Eamonn O’Donovan brings a breadth of experience that will serve Irvine well, and he’s thoroughly familiar with our system of interest-based collective bargaining, which has set a standard for collaborative negotiations by focusing on common objectives.” A native of Ireland, O’Donovan has spent more than a decade leading schools and educational programs in Orange County. From 2000 through 2003, he was principal of Las Flores Middle School in the Capistrano Valley Unified School District, and he spent the next three years as principal of CUSD’s Ladera Ranch Middle and Elementary schools. O’Donovan was promoted to Capistrano’s executive director of secondary support in 2006. In 2008, he was named as the district’s assistant superintendent in charge of special education, as well as its Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) director. He was hired as Los Alamitos’s assistant superintendent of human resources in 2009, providing leadership in recruitment, selection and evaluation for the 900-employee district. “I am tremendously excited to join the Irvine Unified School District and to work with its Board of Education, staff, parents and students,” O’Donovan said. “This school system has burnished a reputation of academic excellence due in large part to the vast capabilities of its employees, and I am honored to be a part of the team responsible for hiring the next generation of great educators.” O’Donovan has a master’s degree in education administration from California State University, Fullerton, as well as a master’s degree in education from California State University, Chico. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education and the Gaelic language from St. Patrick University in Dublin, Ireland. A resident of Mission Viejo, O’Donovan is married with two children, ages 10 and 14.