Dutton joining county education Board
PALMDALE — Former Antelope Valley Union High School District and Keppel Union School District trustee R. Michael Dutton will join the Los Angeles County Board of Education next month as Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s appointee.
Barger nominated Dutton for the two-year rotational seat. Each supervisor gets one appointee to the County Board of Education and then there is one rotational seat for a two-year term that each supervisor takes turns appointing to. Beginning July 1, the rotational seat is Barger’s appointment. The Board approved Dutton’s appointment at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Having done elementary and high school that’s sort of been the preparation and this is the next step. It’s a different level of responsibility and a whole different process,” Dutton said Wednesday.
Dutton will succeed trustee Ellen Rosenberg, who was appointed to the Board in July 2019 by Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn. Barger’s regular appointee is Douglas Boyd, who was appointed to the Board in 2008. Boyd
submitted his resignation on Monday. Barger’s new appointee, Yvonne Chan, will be on the Board’s agenda in July.
Dutton brings a wealth of knowledge about education to the Board. He will be the first representative from the Antelope Valley on the county Board since Sophia Waugh, who served from 1994 to 2009.
A military veteran, Dutton served 24 years as a trustee on the Keppel Union School District governing Board. He served one term on Antelope Valley Union High School District’s governing Board. He is the founding principal of SOAR High School, the early college high school program on the Antelope Valley College campus. He also worked at the elementary, intermediate, high School and college level as a teacher and administrator. Dutton also completed the Masters in Governance program and is a statewide consultant for that program with the California School Boards Association.