Irene Sumida
Board Vice-Chair (term ends 6/30/2012)

Irene Sumida is the director of Fenton Avenue Charter School, an elementary conversion charter school located in the Northeast San Fernando Valley in the city of Lake View Terrace, California. When Irene was assigned to Fenton as the school's assistant principal on July 1, 1991, the large, year-round school was plagued by vandalism, violence, low morale and single-digit test scores.

Recognizing charter conversion as a vehicle for change and improvement, Irene and the school's principal, Joe Lucente, led the staff in writing Fenton's original charter petition in April 1993. Unanimously approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education, Fenton Avenue Charter School became the State of California's thirtieth charter school and gained total independence on January 1, 1994. Using the flexibility that charter status allows and fueled by the creativity and hard work of Fenton's highly dedicated and talented staff, Fenton Avenue Charter School was named a California Distinguished School in May 1997. Fenton's charter has been renewed twice; first in 1998, at which time the Fenton staff resigned from the school district; and then again in 2003.