Quick Take
Pacific Collegiate School has named Chris Guyer, a seasoned administrator from Riverside Unified School District, as its new head of school beginning July 1. He replaces Maria Reitano, who is stepping down after six years to join the Santa Cruz County Office of Education.
Pacific Collegiate School said it has hired Chris Guyer as its new head of school, as current head Maria Reitano departs for a job at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education.
Guyer is an administrator at Riverside Unified School District, 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
He told Lookout he’s “super excited” to step into the role. His first day on the job at the charter school is July 1.
Pacific Collegiate School serves 523 students in grades seven through 12 on its Westside Santa Cruz campus. The school is often considered among the top in the state for how rigorously it prepares its students for college. It was recently ranked eighth high school in California by U.S. News and World Report.
Guyer said he’s taking the role for a range of reasons. He has family in Santa Cruz – his brother lives here and his niece and nephew go to PCS. His Riverside job is an hour from his home in Pasadena, and he said he realized his first district-level job is too distant from what he enjoys most: working with and building relationships with school leadership and students.
“I was really missing that direct connection and direct impact with students,” he said. “And that commute was taking its toll.”
Guyer has more than 20 years of leadership experience in educational roles, including principal, assistant principal, teacher, dean of students and his current role as director of local control & accountability plan and community engagement. He served in his current position at Riverside Unified School District for two years, following six years in San Gabriel Unified School District, where he was a high school assistant principal and a middle school principal.
The Pacific Collegiate School board of directors unanimously approved Guyer’s employment contract during a regular meeting on Tuesday. Guyer, whose last official day with Riverside Unified is June 13, wasn’t at the meeting but said he’s now on the search for housing. His three-year contract with PCS ends June 30, 2028, and his base annual salary is $190,000.
Board president Mike Kubo told Lookout the board is ecstatic to have Guyer step into the role.
“Chris has deep experience with both traditional and charter school environments, and his commitment to serving all students and his collaborative leadership style were really the main factors in the board approving the recommendation,” said Kubo.
He added that the board is sad to see Reitano leave and appreciates all she’s done since joining the school in 2019.
Reitano has led the school through challenging times. Just months after her appointment, the school lost two students and family members who were on the MV Conception boat that caught fire and sank off Southern California, killing 34 people. Months later, the pandemic hit and then the CZU fire, and later the storms and flooding in 2023 and 2024.
“She’s given so much to the school, and has dedicated the last six years of her career to seeing PCS through some really difficult times,” Kubo said of Reitano. “We wish her the best in her next position.”
Reitano said she’s very proud to have been of service during those challenges and was inspired by how members of the school community supported each other. Reitano added that, as in many jobs where the leader serves as the public face of the institution, “there’s a tremendous amount of stress.”
“Students and parents and community members all look to the head of school as the face of the institution, and also in times of crisis,” she said. “I’m just at a point in my life and health where I need to take a step back from being that public face and look for something that uses my experience in a different way.”
She also pointed to an expansion of sports programs, revised curriculum that has improved students’ math scores and the growth of mental health services that she’s overseen at the school in recent years as accomplishments she takes pride in.
Reitano added that she had made the decision to leave her role at the end of the school year last year, after her doctor suggested that it could be good for her health.
“I had made the decision at the end of last year, at the advice of my doctor, to step away from the stressful role of direct school leadership to take care of my own physical health,” she said. “So I was looking for something that would allow me to continue working in school leadership, but maybe not quite as stressful a role, and so that seemed like a perfect fit.”
Reitano, who lives in Watsonville, is shifting to COE director of continuous improvement, where she will support superintendents and school leaders to best meet state standards. Her last official day with PCS is June 30 and she starts in her new role July 1.
She told Lookout that she’s also sad to leave the school, but she’s excited about the new role as it suits her experience. Reitano previously worked as a program director at the New Teacher Center, a nonprofit based in Santa Cruz offering coaching and professional development for teachers.
“The idea of being able to step back into that coach’s role and provide some partnership and experience to school leaders and district leaders around the complicated tasks of meeting state accountability, but also meeting their own goals for their communities, is intriguing to me,” she said.
Reitano said she hasn’t met Guyer yet, but trusts that the search committee has done a great job finding a successor.
Guyer said he’s excited to be at a school site again and said his first priority will be “spending a lot of time listening and learning.”
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