School Board Appoints New MHS Principal

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District appointed Jerry Block as the new principal of Wednesday.

Block previously served as assistant principal of Oak Park High School for the past seven years. He developed Mandarin instruction for K-12 students while at the Oak Park Unified School District.

Before that he worked at , where he was the chair of the modern language program. Block also served as Coordinator for Testing and Staff Development at Calabasas High School and BTSA Support Provider at Las Virgenes Unified School District.

"We truly welcome Mr. Block to his new leadership role. We will be working in the next few weeks to get him familiar with the Malibu community," SMMUSD Superintendent Sandra Lyon said.

Block, who helped lead Oak Park High School's API score past the 900 mark, said he is thrilled to be joining the faculty and staff at MHS.

"We have a big task and that is to prepare students to be citizens of the 21st century," Block said. He said he plans to work with parents, teachers and staff at the high school to develop a vision for the next six years.

Block is taking the place of former MHS Principal Mark Kelly, who has a new position within the SMMUSD.