{"id":193422,"date":"2026-02-25T18:30:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/193422\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:30:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:30:49","slug":"acsa-region-17-announces-2026-orange-county-administrators-of-the-year-ocde-newsroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/193422\/","title":{"rendered":"ACSA Region 17 announces 2026 Orange County Administrators of the Year \u2013 OCDE Newsroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" alt=\"Dr. Norma E. Martinez, superintendent of the Centralia School District, poses with a bouquet after being named the 2026 Superintendent of the Year by ACSA Region 17.\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-47078\" data-id=\"47078\" data-aspect-ratio=\"2048 \/ 1365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/630576232_1542108997915723_2252198622278256642_n.jpg\"  \/>Dr. Norma E. Martinez, superintendent of the Centralia Elementary School District, poses with a bouquet after being named the 2026 Superintendent of the Year by ACSA Region 17. (Photo courtesy of the Centralia Elementary School District)<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" alt=\"Dr. Norma E. Martinez (center) stands with Centralia School District colleagues holding a sign recognizing her as the 2026 ACSA Region 17 Superintendent of the Year.\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-47080\" data-id=\"47080\" data-aspect-ratio=\"2048 \/ 1365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/631488356_1542108911249065_7578791683127196569_n.jpg\"  \/>Dr. Norma E. Martinez stands with Centralia Elementary School District colleagues holding a sign recognizing her as the 2026 ACSA Region 17 Superintendent of the Year. (Photo courtesy of the Centralia Elementary School District)<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" alt=\"Centralia School District staff pose for a group photo with Superintendent Dr. Norma E. Martinez and Maria Lopez, who was named ACSA Region 17 Confidential Employee of the Year.\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-47077\" data-id=\"47077\" data-aspect-ratio=\"2048 \/ 1365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/631366786_1542109044582385_2808550166370737920_n.jpg\"  \/>Centralia Elementary School District staff pose for a group photo with Superintendent Dr. Norma E. Martinez and Maria Lopez, who was named ACSA Region 17 Confidential Employee of the Year. (Photo courtesy of the Centralia Elementary  School District)<a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a aria-label=\"Pause Slideshow\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause\" role=\"button\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ededed\">Quick look: ACSA Region 17 has named 20 Orange County educational leaders as 2026 Administrators of the Year. Honorees will be recognized May 11 at the Irvine Marriott Ballrooms, with three additional award recipients to be announced.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acsa17.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Association of California School Administrators<\/a> has announced the 2026 Administrators of the Year for Region 17, which represents Orange County.<\/p>\n<p>Established in 1971, ACSA serves more than 17,000 California educators and annually recognizes outstanding administrators and education partners at the regional and state levels for their contributions to public education.<\/p>\n<p>So far, Region 17 has named 20 awardees across 23 categories. Recipients in the Tracy Gaffey Award, Classified Champion Award and Dr. Janice Billings Award categories will be announced at a later date.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To celebrate this year\u2019s winners, the awardees will be honored at a celebration dinner at the Irvine Marriott on May 11, where they will receive trophies.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DU8N_fpjCj8\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">list<\/a> of 2026 Administrators of the Year and related honorees for Region 17:<\/p>\n<p>Superintendent<br \/>Dr. Norma E. Martinez, Centralia School District<\/p>\n<p>Secondary Principal<br \/>Tricia Osborne, Saddleback Valley Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Middle School Principal<br \/>Catherine Thompson, Capistrano Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Elementary School Principal<br \/>Stephanie Shumate, Anaheim Elementary School District<\/p>\n<p>Central Office Administrator<br \/>Dr. Elisabeth Kannenberg, Laguna Beach Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Secondary Co-Administrator<br \/>Shane Vinagupta, Saddleback Valley Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Middle Grades Co-Administrator of the Year<br \/>Kathryn McGillvary, Anaheim Union High School District<\/p>\n<p>Classified Educational Leader<br \/>Alyssa Griffiths, Saddleback Valley Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Confidential Employee of the Year<br \/>Maria Lopez, Centralia Elementary School District<\/p>\n<p>Personnel\/HR Administrator<br \/>Rich Montgomery, Westminster School District<\/p>\n<p>Adult Education Administrator of the Year<br \/>Dr. Jennifer Pesavento, North Orange County Regional Occupational Program<\/p>\n<p>Career Technical Education Administrator<br \/>Dr. Dan Bennett, Los Alamitos Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Special Education Administrator<br \/>Christine Arkadie, Saddleback Valley Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Business Services Administrator of the Year<br \/>Dr. Robert Coghlan, Fullerton School District<\/p>\n<p>Partners in Educational Excellence<br \/>Creating Creators, Centralia Elementary School District<\/p>\n<p>Student Services Administrator<br \/>Christy Flores, Newport-Mesa Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Curriculum and Instruction Administrator<br \/>Dr. Veronica Lizardi, Magnolia School District<\/p>\n<p>Retired Administrator<br \/>Greg Rankin, Santa Ana Unified School District retiree<\/p>\n<p>Educational Technology Administrator<br \/>Lana Nguyen, Capistrano Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>Valuing Diversity Award<br \/>Dr. Emily Wolk, Santa Ana Unified School District<\/p>\n<p>The OCDE Newsroom team will update this story once those names are released.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Norma E. Martinez, superintendent of the Centralia Elementary School District, poses with a bouquet after being named&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-193422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}