DEL MAR – The superintendent of the Hermosa Beach City School District is expected to be hired as head of the Del Mar Union School District at a board of trustees meeting Wednesday evening.

Sharon McClain, an educator for more than 30 years, was chosen as the top contender out of 21 applicants, Ken Noonan, whose firm The Cosca Group conducted the search, confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

McClain, contacted in Hermosa Beach, said she was thrilled at the possibility of coming to Del Mar.

“It's a beautiful community, with great teachers and staff,” she said. “It's heaven in terms of school districts.”

The Del Mar school board is scheduled to vote to hire McClain at a special meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The meeting will be at Ashley Falls School, 13030 Ashley Falls Drive in Carmel Valley.

Del Mar Union has been without a permanent superintendent since late February, when a fractured school board ousted Tom Bishop, who had a 10-year tenure. Trustees Annette Easton, Katherine White and Steve McDowell, who have formed a consistent voting bloc on the board, had criticized Bishop for running the district with what they said was a heavy hand.

Former Trustee Linda Crawford, who resigned from the board in mid-March, and Trustee Janet Lamborghini, who is not running for re-election this fall, supported Bishop but made up a board minority.

The Del Mar school board is scheduled to spend most of the day Wednesday visiting McClain's school district in Hermosa Beach, which enrolls about 1,100 students and is one of the top-performing in the state. Its Academic Performance Index, a state measure of academic performance, was 905 in 2007 – compared with Del Mar Union's score of 947. Both are considered among the best in California.

Del Mar Union, with about 3,800 students, is more than three times larger than the district in Hermosa Beach.

The Del Mar board was eager to hire someone by the start of school on Monday, and trustees worked especially hard in recent weeks to comb through a group of finalists, Noonan said.

“Our company's goal was to present a very difficult decision to make,” he said. “The candidates were superb, so it was not easy for them to choose.”

White would not confirm that the board was considering McClain, and she declined to say anything about the search until Wednesday.

“We haven't made any announcements about anything,” White said. “We obviously have not taken a vote. Otherwise, we would have had to announce it.”

Lamborghini and Easton also said they couldn't comment. Trustees Steve McDowell and Doug Perkins could not be reached Tuesday evening.

Noonan said the board was particularly impressed by McClain's dedication to exposing elementary school students to foreign languages. In Hermosa Beach, she championed a program to teach students Spanish in a district where few are native Spanish speakers. She also has worked to establish a foreign language program in Mandarin, and she has traveled to China to research language programs there, Noonan said.

McClain majored in Spanish as an undergraduate at San Diego State University, and for a time she studied in Guadalajara, Mexico, and in San Antonio de Belen in Costa Rica.

She completed her master's degree at National University and received her doctorate from the University of La Verne.

Over the years, McClain has worked as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent.

Her husband, Joe Condon, is superintendent of the Lawndale Elementary School District, near Los Angeles International Airport.

The couple are the parents of six children, including four foster children. All are grown.

McClain has worked as a vocal teacher, and she plays the violin and piano – pluses for the school district in Del Mar, whose parents have supported arts education.

The board is still negotiating McClain's salary and benefits, Noonan said Tuesday afternoon. Tom Bishop's salary was about $192,000 annually when he left.

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