SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : School Official to Take Top Post at Cardiff

The assistant superintendent of elementary schools for the Capistrano Unified School District is leaving to take the top post at the Cardiff School District in San Diego County.

Richard Thome, 47, will head a district of two schools and 1,000 students. The school board in Cardiff is expected to make Thome’s hiring official during a meeting Wednesday. He would begin work Oct. 19.

Capistrano Supt. James A. Fleming said he will propose that Thome’s position be filled on an interim basis by Austin Buffum, the district’s coordinator of elementary instructional services.

The board will consider the matter today.

Fleming said a search for Thome’s permanent replacement will be conducted in the spring.

Thome has been in education for 23 years, beginning as a teacher in the Pasadena Unified School District.

In 1978, he was named principal of Las Palmas Elementary School in San Clemente. He was also coordinator of instructional technology and served as principal at Crown Valley Elementary School.

Thome was named director of elementary schools in 1987.

In his current job, Thome supervises 26 elementary school principals, 32 assistant principals and 640 teachers.

More than 50 people applied for the Cardiff post, according to officials there.