Lodi educator taking over Oakley schools
OAKLEY — Oakley Union Elementary School District has named Lodi school administrator Jeffrey Palmquist as its new superintendent.
Palmquist, 46, will succeed Greg Hetrick, who is retiring this month after five years as the district’s superintendent and more than 30 years in education. The new superintendent will earn $195,000 annually.
“We were very excited to have an excellent field of candidates for the superintendent position,” school board President Lynell Fuller said in announcing the hire. “With the assistance of a staff, parent and community member panel, Mr. Palmquist emerged as the right fit to lead our district.”
The new superintendent comes to Oakley after the district saw one of its most tumultuous years, with four school board members resigning after a hot mic moment in which some trustees mocked parents who wanted their children to return to in-person learning.
With no members left on the Oakley Union school board — one had resigned before the hot mic occurred — Contra Costa County school board members temporarily stepped in and started appointing new trustees, later with the help of the new
board members.
Less than three months later, the superintendent, who had taken some heat over the hot mic incident, announced he was retiring, and filling that position quickly became one of the new board’s first major tasks besides reopening schools during the pandemic.
“Public education has certainly had its challenges over the past year and a half, but I know that Oakley will continue to come together and take care of our students,” Palmquist said.
The new superintendent said he is familiar with the Oakley area, having grown up in the Stockton/Lodi area and spent “considerable time on the delta” when he was younger.
“I love how the Oakley community takes pride in honoring its past while looking to the future,” he said.
Palmquist began his career in the San Joaquin County Office of Education Court and Community School Program 30 years ago and has since served as a teacher, an assistant principal, a school principal and an associate superintendent.
For the past three years, he was assistant superintendent of Secondary Education
at Lodi Unified School District, where he was involved with creating innovative programs for high school students and oversaw the district’s middle school, high school and alternative school programs, as well as the Child Welfare and Attendance Department.
In addition, Palmquist has served as an adjunct professor at the Teachers College of San Joaquin.
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Palmquist also earned his master’s in education from National University, holds a teaching credential from the University of the Pacific and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wyoming.
“I am excited and honored to have been chosen as the new superintendent of Oakley Union and look forward to working collaboratively with the school board, staff, students, parents and community,” he said.
Fuller also acknowledged Hetrick’s leadership skills and efforts, especially in the recent “unprecedented times.”
“His dedication to Oakley
Union Elementary School District, the educators and the children we serve is unmatched,” Fuller said. “He will be greatly missed.”
Palmquist will take over the reins on Aug. 22. Oakley Union has an enrollment of slightly more than 5,000 students at nine schools, including two middle schools.