Terena Mendonca As The New Associate Superintendent For The El Dorado County Office Of Education

We Welcome Terena Mendonca As The New Associate Superintendent For The El Dorado County Office Of Education

For the past several months, the El Dorado County Office of Education has held a process to seek an Associate Superintendent as a result of the announced retirement of Deputy Superintendent Francie Heim. Francie Heim has served with distinction in this role, both within El Dorado County and providing statewide leadership. Ms. Heim has served in her current role since 1994, and prior to that she was Director of Business Services from 1981 to 1987. Between 1987 and 1994 she joined the Amador County Unified system to serve as their Assistant Superintendent. Ms. Heim is a true leader among business service administrators. She has served as chair of a number of statewide organizations, including chairing the governance team that represented every statewide educational management association in the creation of a Chief Business Official training program. It was Ms. Heim’s tireless efforts that led to creation of the curriculum, brought all of the coalition partners to the table to participate in the training, and inspired the legislation to move the concept to implementation.

Ms. Heim is also well recognized as a community leader throughout El Dorado County. She is and has been involved in a number of community based organizations. One example of her impact on services to children and families in El Dorado County has been her participation on the Western Slope Boys & Girls Club Board. Ms. Heim led the effort to procure a facility for the Club. Her determination was certainly tested in working with the National Guard, the State of California, as well as the local entities to ensure that the Armory in Placerville could be used by the Boys & Girls Club. Her success in working through all the different levels and bureaucracies resulted in over 200 children and young people being able to engage in a positive and nurturing environment on a daily basis. El Dorado County has benefited greatly from Ms. Heim’s exemplary leadership.

We are delighted to announce Ms. Terena Mendonca has been selected to serve as Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services for the El Dorado County Office of Education, to begin on December 1, 2008. Ms. Mendonca brings years of experience in fiscal leadership and management. She has served for the past five years in the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools Office and prior to that served for almost ten years with two school districts as their Business Manager.

Ms. Mendonca has a reputation of finding creative and innovative funding solutions, coupled with sound fiscal practices. She is a wonderful addition to the El Dorado County Office of Education team. Allowing for transition time, we anticipate that Ms. Mendonca will officially start December 1, 2008.

The County Office undertook an extensive process to select our next Associate Superintendent. Over twenty people took part in screening applicants, interviewing candidates, and checking references. Superintendents, business officials, teachers, classified employees, administrators, community members and Board members were represented throughout the process.

Terena Mendonca will be working with the exemplary El Dorado County Office of Education business staff to keep the county schools moving forward as education deals with a very difficult financial time with less resources during this next year. Please join with the El Dorado County Office of Education to welcome Terena Mendonca to El Dorado County.

For further information, please contact County Superintendent, Vicki Barber, at 530-295-2229 or at vlbarber@edcoe.org. For further information about the El Dorado County Office of Education please visit our website, www.edcoe.org.