UPDATED: A reader comment prompted me to check back in with Petaluma City Schools on the number of years Brian Howard was principal at Petaluma High. It was four, not six, years. It has been updated below. Good catch, Jake.

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Petaluma City Schools has tapped two former employees to join forces and become interim co-principals at Petaluma High School.

Four year veteran Brian Howard left the principal post to become principal at Willowide Middle School, according to Ron Everett, the district’s director of human resources.

Incoming are Marilyn Statford and Frank Lynch.

Statford has worked in Petaluma City Schools since 1970, teaching at Kenilworth Junior High, as principal of Sonoma Mountain High School, Casa Grande High School, and spent four years as director of student services, according to Petaluma Schools officials. She retired in 2008 but returned in 2010 to serve in interim leadership positions at Kenilworth.

Lynch was principal at Petaluma High School for nine years before becoming superintendent at King City Joint Union High School district and then superintendent of the West Sonoma County High school district, according to Petaluma City Schools. It was during that two-year tenure that Lynch was embroiled in a controversy over the proposed dismal of co-principals at El Molino High School. Lynch abruptly quit amid the flap in March 2000.

Lynch then became interim principal at Berkeley High School for a year before moving to Del Norte County where he was district and county superintendent for four years, according to the district. He was superintendent of Lompoc Unified School District for four years before retiring. Lynch is currently an adjunct faculty member for the University of San Francisco, according to the district.

Recruitment for a permanent replacement will be conducted in the spring, according to the district.

School starts Aug. 17.

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