Superintendent Dr. Alex Cherniss will be the keynote speaker at the next meeting of the San Marino City Club, which will be held on Tues., Oct. 18 in the San Marino Center. Cherniss, who is in his third year with the San Marino Unified School District, will discuss the new Barth Athletic Complex which is scheduled to be built at Huntington Middle School, facility needs at district sites as well as the manner in which schools are funded.
“Or not funded,” Cherniss joked.
Cherniss replaced former Superintendent Loren Kleinrock upon his retirement in July, 2014. Previously, Cherniss served as Chief Financial Officer of the Los Angeles County Office of Education. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, where he earned his Ed.D. in 2008.
In his prior role as CFO, Cherniss certified the budgets of all 80 school districts in Los Angeles County, which included over $13 billion in fiscal oversight. He routinely instructed superintendents and school business officials throughout the county on the new state funding and accountability laws and procedures, the Local Control Funding Formula, or LCFF, and the Local Control Accountability Plan, also known as LCAP.
Cherniss has held leadership positions for more than 10 years, beginning in the Beverly Hills Unified School District, where as principal of Hawthorne School, he led the school to the highest API score in the district and helped the school achieve the honor of California Distinguished School. As Director of Human Resources and Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Cherniss also served in a variety of leadership roles including the mentoring of site administrators, the fiscal management of the district’s $330 million school construction program, and the establishment and implementation of the district’s Finance Committee and Basic Aid Special Reserve Fund. He is also an American Association of School Administrators Education Scholar, a USC Dean’s Superintendents Advisory Group Scholar and was previously named the Beverly Hills Unified School District’s Administrator of the Year.
“I think the City Club has traditionally been one of the most respected and valued stakeholders in the community,” Cherniss told The Tribune. “This is a great way to reach out and talk about what makes us unique as well as our challenges and our successes.”
The dinner meeting will be held in the San Marino Center. While members are free, guests are $30 for adults and $15 for children, payable at the door. A reception starts at 5:45 p.m. where you can meet the speaker and your friends before dinner. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m.
City Club members may RSVP by emailing cityclubrsvp@gmail.com, or by calling (626) 765-4411 and leaving a message with the member’s name and the full name of any guest whom the member wishes to invite.
San Marino City Club is a non-profit, civic organization that – since 1926 – has been dedicated to obtaining for the citizens of San Marino the best educational and cultural services possible, and promoting the highest standards of citizenship among its members. City Club membership is open to residents of San Marino, the San Marino Unified School District, officials of the school district or the City of San Marino, and persons who conduct their business or profession within the school district boundaries. More information on City Club is available on their website at www.sanmarinocityclub.org.
