Superintendent Mike Matthews To Leave District After 11 Years

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA —Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Mike Matthews announced in an email to the school community on April 13 that he would be stepping down at the end of the school year.

Matthews had already informed the school board last July that he’d decided to leave the district. His contract is up on June 30.

"I am announcing today that after eleven years as your superintendent, it is time for me to take on my next challenge in life," he wrote in the email.

This proved to be a challenging year for Matthews, who joined MBUSD as superintendent on July 1, 2010. Since the coronavirus pandemic took over in March 2020, schools were shut down to in-person learning while students spent months learning virtually. The district’s elementary schools moved to hybrid learning in December while students at Manhattan Beach middle and high schools started hybrid instruction in March of this year.

"I’m so proud of all we have done together since 2010 —the curricular changes, the construction that has transformed and revitalized our campuses, the partnerships we have developed, the leaders who have risen from our ranks, the awards we have won, and the way we have become a truly unified district, with teachers and employees learning together and from each other," he wrote.

Before joining MBUSD, Matthews served as assistant superintendent of human resources for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Prior to that, he was the principal of Malibu High for 11 years.

You can read his full "Personal Message of Gratitude" on the MBUSD website.