Families of English learners and students with disabilities in Orange County can find inspiration and an ally in Stefan Bean. School choice advocates can find an advocate. In June, the five-member Orange County School Board unanimously decided that Bean has the perspective and skills they were looking for in a superintendent of the Orange County Department of Education.

In two years, voters will decide whether the board made the right choice.

Bean, 53, was sworn in as superintendent last month to fill the remaining two years of the term of former Superintendent Al Mijares, who resigned because of a long battle with cancer. Mijares, a former EdSource board member who was first elected in 2012, had battled the politically conservative board majority in court and at board meetings. So the board turned to Bean, who lost to Mijares by nearly 10 percentage points in 2022 but promised to consult with them on policy and control of the office’s $380 million budget.

Source: Orange County Department of Education.

Bean has lived a remarkable life and an unusual resume for a district inspector. As a toddler, he suffered from polio, which left him paralysed from the waist down. He was abandoned on the streets of Saigon before being taken in by an orphanage and airlifted to the US in 1975 as part of the ‘Babylift’ rescue operation during the chaotic end of the Vietnam War.

Judy and Gregory Bean took him and dozens of other foster children into their San Diego home and later adopted him. Bean received a scholarship to USC and became an elementary school teacher in public schools in Fresno and Long Beach. For the past 25 years, he has served as a charter school administrator – first as principal and then as assistant principal for 11 Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles.

Most recently, he served as executive director of Irvine International Academy, a charter school that teaches Mandarin as an immersion language.

Since his wife died of breast cancer in 2020, Bean has raised their four children, from a daughter who just graduated from USC to a youngest daughter who is in middle school.

EdSource interviewed Bean about his childhood, his views on education and his priorities as county school superintendent for the two years leading up to a 2026 election campaign. His remarks have been edited for length and clarity.

Mr. School Superintendent, tell us about your upbringing and your experiences at school.

Judy Bean really taught her family to have compassion for the most vulnerable in our community. She and her father decided to care for children who were abused, had problems or disabilities. They had two children of their own and adopted ten, several with disabilities. I had three black sisters, two Latino brothers, and a Latino brother who died at age two because he suffered such severe brain trauma.

I attended a public school in San Diego, where I struggled in elementary school because English was my second language and because IDEA (the groundbreaking federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) had just come out in the ’70s and schools were still trying to figure out how to educate students with disabilities. I often found myself in small groups outside of the classroom. Isolating myself didn’t really help my education, and it shaped my drive to be inclusive in education.

I wasn’t particularly successful until I met Donald Geisinger, my sixth grade teacher. I’m still friends with him 43 years later. He saw through my struggles and said, “Stefan, you’re just going to do oral presentations and skits about what you’ve learned – you don’t have to write anything.” I just worked on my oral skills all year. I spoke quite a bit of Vietnamese, and by the end of the year I was starting to speak English quite fluently. By sixth grade I was getting straight A’s and got a scholarship to USC.

His heart for students and his recognition of my strengths were a springboard for me to do other things, like speaking on behalf of the disabled in front of 15,000 people in Washington, DC.

How have your experiences shaped your view of education?

Mr. Geisinger and my father saw people and students through the lens of their strengths. Whether they are autistic or have a physical or emotional disability – these are of course deficits, but we as educators must recognize the strengths of these students and then encourage them and give them strength.

Leadership from the heart

When you say again that you lead from the heart, how does that work?

You lead with empathy. My mantra has been that you involve those most affected by decisions. It’s not top-down. Of course, there are certain legal and personnel decisions that would have to be made without input. But many decisions that impact educational programs can involve the community and the stakeholders affected by them.

I expect this would be a particular strength when dealing with parents of English learners and parents of students with disabilities.

Absolutely. I now represent a lot of students who have traditionally been left behind. I definitely identify with those students and hope that they will look to me as their voice.

Your predecessor had a contentious relationship with the board. Since the board elected you, I assume that you are more philosophically aligned with them.

I cannot speak on behalf of Dr. Mijares, but I certainly have the utmost respect for his leadership. If I can lead in a collaborative and transparent manner, then I believe we can resolve any dispute between the Board and the County Department of Education. During my appointment process, I expressed my commitment to building collaboration, transparency and trust and continuing to support our 28 school districts.

How will you do that?

It is common for school districts to have committees on which two (out of five members), or sometimes three on larger school boards, can sit to really provide input (without violating the Brown Act, which regulates public meetings) and receive feedback.

You have been quoted as saying you want to “further expand” the panel’s work in support of charter schools and provide parents with more educational options, including charter schools and homeschooling. Is this a matter of using the pulpit? What can and will you do?

If people learned more about me, met me and heard my vision, they would say that far from using this as a pulpit, I’m actually the exact opposite. My vision is to lead from the heart that we serve our principals with and serve our schools in this work. But to answer your question, this board certainly believes in alternative education models and therefore charter schools. I believe that most of the school superintendents I’ve met believe that our students have different needs. So in the name of equity, we need to provide our students with what they need.

But how does homeschooling work?

Many home schools are now charter schools, and charter schools are strictly regulated in all aspects. We support charter schools that use the independent learning model, which is very similar to home schooling. We do not support private home school models. We have an independent learning model within the department where students learn from home.

County offices can approve statewide charters, but aren’t charter applications forwarded to individual counties for approval?

The initial application for a charter school goes to the local school district. If it is rejected there, the school can register the school as a county charter school in its county. That is one way. And usually these county charter schools can later submit the application for approval as a county charter school. We have over 30 charter schools.

But are there not restrictions on the ability of district authorities to overturn a local decision?

Of course, if a district denies a charter, they have to give reasons for doing so. Then that district can present it to the county school board and say, “OK, this district denied us A, B, and C. And this is how we responded to A, B, and C. Now we want you to approve the charter.” There are few restrictions. Our district can certainly do that.

The Importance of social-emotional learning

What is your opinion on social-emotional learning (SEL)?

Social-emotional learning is very important in schools when we do it as a team in a collaborative way. That includes our parents. Social-emotional learning simply helps our students overcome the challenges in their lives. It helps them become resilient. That’s exactly what I grew up with. I experienced a lot of adversity that our students experience. To overcome those, adults including my parents, teachers, counselors, speech therapists, special education teachers, all of those people helped me overcome my challenges and become resilient and competent. And that’s exactly what SEL should do.

I have cautioned educators against using it as a political tool to push something that may not protect our students. For example, I am 100% convinced that parental involvement is absolutely critical in our education system, so if SEL is being used to exclude some of our parents, we have missed the mark. I am critical on that point.

What are your priorities for the next two years?

The top priority is simply to continue to understand the Department of Education’s assets and values ​​throughout Orange County.

My second vision is to remain at the forefront of 21st century competencies and skills and to lead the way for our students through our OC Pathways partnerships with districts and ACCESS (Alternative, Community, and Correctional Education Schools and Services), our 29th school district. We serve thousands of students in our county in an alternative education setting and model.

Let’s say you actually want to run for office in two years. What are you going to point to and say, “I made this change. It’s visible, and it’s impacting student success.”

We will be leaders in the areas where we will lead the nation, namely college and career preparation. I believe in that vision wholeheartedly. One of my efforts will be to use some of our reserves to provide grants to our school districts so they can develop and promote innovative programs. Three groups I spoke with recently focused on artificial intelligence, various tech skills, and student leadership. Our districts will have great ideas, and we will support them with resources to implement them.