Retirement

Coast Community College District Chancellor Ding-Jo Currie has announced that she will retire at the end of the school year. Currie announced in a letter to faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees last week that she will retire June 30 to spend more time with family and friends. "It is with much agonizing and heartfelt reflection that I have come to a decision regarding my search for the next chapter of a purposeful life," Currie wrote. Currie took the helm of the district — which oversees Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley — last November after serving as interim chancellor since January 2009.

Gay Davidson-Shepard, the former Mesa View Middle School teacher charged with having sexual relations with a 17-year-old boy, has retired from the Ocean View School District. Davidson-Shepard's retirement was effective May 28, according to district records. She was put on administrative leave after her arrest in April. An official with the district would not say whether Davidson-Shepard's retirement was connected with the case. Her husband, Daniel Shepard, who is also charged in the case, retired from Westminster High School in 2009.

Eron Ben-Yehuda HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The city is offering a group of its employees greater retirement benefits, and some worry that taxpayers may have to pick up the tab. About 600 city personnel are "very close" to concluding a new labor agreement that would allow them to retire at 55 and still earn the same percentage of income they now have to wait until they're 60 to receive, said Bill Osness, the city's personnel...

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. filed a lawsuit this week on behalf of two Huntington Beach residents who claim the city is charging a tax that is illegal. The suit demands that residents Charles Scheid and Charles Davis receive refunds from the city for a property tax used to help pay for retirement benefits of city employees. Continuing to collect the tax allegedly violates Proposition 13, according to court documents filed Monday. The tax is based on a percentage of the assessed value of a property.

-- ANDREW WAINER The Oak View community of Huntington Beach underwent a dramatic change this year when the Oak View School Community Liaison Fran Andrade retired from the position. Andrade, who had occupied the position for 30 years, passed the torch to Sheri Medrano. Medrano had worked at Oak View Elementary School for 17 years as a bilingual instructional aide. Andrade was treated to a surprise retirement party in June. "She's awesome," Medrano said at the party.

After five years leading the Huntington Beach City School District, Supt. Roberta De Luca has announced her retirement. “The timing was just right,” De Luca said. “I think the district’s in a very good place. It’s the right time for the district, and it’s the right time for me. I’m ready to do something different.” For De Luca, “different” means volunteering in her community and her local animal shelter, traveling and getting back into golf.

A chance opportunity almost four decades ago brought Huntington Beach Fire Chief Duane Olson into the department, but after 39 years with the city, he has shown it wasn’t chance that kept him here. Olson announced over the summer his intention to retire Dec. 22 after overseeing the city’s fire protection and prevention, rescue and emergency medical services for more than 200,000 residents since 2003, when he was appointed chief. After seven years at the helm, Olson said it is the right time to go. “I don’t think there is ever a good time to retire, but I really think there is a right time to retire, and for me, both personally and professionally, it is the right time to retire,” he said Olson started out as a lifeguard for the city and was “very fortunate,” as he put it, to be transferred to the fire department with a handful of others.

St. Bonaventure School will be honoring its principal, who is retiring after more than 40 years as an educator and administrator of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Orange. Sister Carmel Lynch, first appointed as principal of St. Bonaventure in 1966, guided the school to the National Blue Ribbon Award in 2006. The community is invited to attend a Mass of Thanksgiving to be offered for her at 5 p.m. Sunday at St. Bonaventure Church, 16400 Springdale St., Huntington Beach.

Jenny Marder City Clerk Connie Brockway will step down Tuesday after 36 years of work in the city because of a family illness, she announced suddenly Wednesday. Brockway, 62, is an institution in the city and one of its most prominent figureheads, as well as a role model for her colleagues, they said. She was elected to office of city clerk in 1988, but has worked for the department since 1968. "She is the best elected official I've ever worked with," City Councilman Dave Sullivan said.

St. Bonaventure School will be honoring its principal, who is retiring after more than 40 years as an educator and administrator of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Orange. Sister Carmel Lynch, first appointed as principal of St. Bonaventure in 1966, guided the school to the National Blue Ribbon Award in 2006. The community is invited to attend a Mass of thanksgiving to be offered for Lynch at 5 p.m. Sunday at St. Bonaventure Church, 16400 Springdale St., Huntington Beach.