Orange County’s newest superintendent is someone who has prioritized alternative schools and promoted more parental involvement throughout his career.
Stefan Bean, the executive director of the Irvine International Academy, a Mandarin language immersion charter school, was recently chosen by the Orange County Board of Education to replace longtime Superintendent Al Mijares.
His career has spanned more than 20 years in charter school education, from serving as the superintendent of Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles to working as the lead principal at two of its schools. But he’s worked in traditional public schools as well, as a teacher and educational consultant for various districts in California.
Typically, the superintendent position is an elected role — one which Bean unsuccessfully ran for before. But Mijares is retiring midway through his term, leaving it up to OCBE to find a replacement.
And the board unanimously chose Bean, who aligns with members’ ongoing pursuit of adding more charter schools to Orange County and has vowed to work closely with the board on the Department of Education’s budget.
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Stefan Bean is chosen as Orange County’s next superintendent
The superintendent leads the Department of Education — a separate entity that oversees alternative and special education and approves school districts’ budgets. The department handles a $380.5 million annual budget, OCDE spokesperson Ian Hanigan said.
OCBE, on the other hand, is comprised of five elected trustees who are responsible for approving charter schools and student disciplinary measures.
In recent years, the relationship between the OCBE and Superintendent Mijares has been strained.
Before his medical leave of absence, Mijares had not attended a board meeting for about a year, sending a deputy in his place because of clashing opinions, specifically over the department’s budget.
Typically, OCDE creates a budget and sends it to the board for final review. In 2019, the OCBE attempted to make last-minute adjustments to the annual budget which Trustee Ken Williams said was done to reduce money spent on “lobbying against charter schools” and “travel budgets.”
Then, Mijares alleged the board was attempting to “advance its own political agenda.”
The OCBE filed a lawsuit against Mijares and California School Superintendent Tony Thurmond, raising the question of who ultimately holds authority over the county’s education budget: the board or the superintendent.
Bean, while interviewing for the open superintendent position in May, promised he would consult the board more when crafting OCDE’s budget. He also said he would end the litigation through “mutually beneficial resolutions.”
Bean also aligns with board members on other hot-button education issues, including “parental rights” in education.
As education has become increasingly politicized, so has the debate over just how much parents should be involved in their children’s education — from weighing in on what instructional materials are used in the classroom to which books are stocked in the library.
Calling parental involvement “vital,” Bean said parents should have “the right to know what their children are being taught and to be a part of the decision-making process on the content and curriculum children learn.” He argues that the more parents are involved in their child’s academic journey, the more successful they are.
“I don’t understand why ‘parental rights’ has to be a hot topic issue because it’s just common sense,” Bean said. “Common sense that we should allow our parents to certainly be involved in their education.”
Parents’ involvement also entails what’s been dubbed notification policies, Bean said.
Generally speaking, these policies — enacted in various school districts over the past few years — require teachers or other school staff to inform parents if their child asks to use a different name or pronoun or requests to use a facility associated with a gender other than the one assigned at birth.
In Orange County, two districts, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified and Orange Unified, have adopted these types of policies.
Opponents of parental notification policies argue this would forcibly out students, potentially putting them in a dangerous situation if parents are not understanding or allies. Attorney General Rob Bonta has challenged these policies in court, calling them “unconstitutional” and maintaining that they “endanger the psychological and emotional well-being of transgender and gender-nonconforming students.”
Bean argues, though, that notifying parents their child may be transgender would be beneficial to the child’s “health and well-being” because they could become more involved in this aspect of their child’s life.
“We don’t want to put students in danger, and we want to protect them,” Bean said. “For the most part, parents can be great resources and allies to help the school and protect our kids. And we don’t really want the pressure on our teachers to have to lie to parents. In the process of protecting our students, we can do that with parental and school support together.”
When it comes to academics, Bean said schools have “been drifting away from the purpose of education.”
In 2022-23, 57% of Orange County students met or exceeded the standard for English language arts, 46% for math and 41% for science.
Five years previous, 59% of Orange County students met or exceeded the standard for English, 50% for math and 40% for science.
To boost higher academic scores, Bean said OCDE needs to “focus on academic rigor.”
“We need to focus on 21st century competencies so students can compete in this space-age world,” Bean said. “When we pour our resources into what really matters for our students, they will achieve.”
This includes giving all students a “classical education,” which Bean defined as an “approach that helps our children to think critically, to form arguments, to debate, to be active citizens and to build character.”
That entails, he said, increasing the challenge of the coursework, including by encouraging students to take higher-level courses, like AP classes.
He’s also a proponent of school choice, essentially having the ability to seek out alternatives to traditional public education, including through charter schools.
“We should think about helping our students find their interests and open opportunities for pathways in those interests,” Bean said.
Bean advocates for inclusivity in the classroom
Bean said he wants to “create a voice for the voiceless students,” specifically those with disabilities.
Bean, who arrived in California from Vietnam as a child, is partially paralyzed. And in 2021, his wife Janet Bean died from metastatic breast cancer.
His experiences have given him a “specific passion” for “multi-language learners, students with disabilities and students who need to be challenged,” Bean said.
“I hope to be an example for our students across Orange County that no matter what challenges they may be facing through education, they can accomplish their dreams and accomplish their potential,” Bean said.
“We need to really unleash the potentials of all our students, not just the gifted, even students who are in private schools or charter schools. We cannot forget about all of our students, even our students with disabilities, and be inclusive in that.”
Bean said he wants to get “voices and input” from disadvantaged students and their families.
“We need to bring community leaders and members that represent their different backgrounds and cultures together and just have a great dialogue,” Bean said. “You also allow people who are most affected by the decisions to participate in the decision-making process, so that’s just not an individual making the choices but it is a collaboration of the community.”
Voters will weigh in on superintendent in 2026
Some of these views, such as parental rights and an emphasis on challenging academics, Bean espoused on the campaign trail in 2022. But then, Orange County voters rejected him.
Bean lost to Mijares by just over 52,000 votes — a 9.8% margin. But during his campaign, he had the endorsement of four out of the five current OCBE trustees who have now appointed him: Tim Shaw, Lisa Sparks, Mari Barke and Williams.
Shaw, the board’s president, said he is confident Bean will do an “outstanding job as superintendent.”
“Dr. Bean has overcome tremendous challenges and tragedies,” Shaw said. “He is an inspiration to anyone who learns about his life.”
“Dr. Bean’s formal education, various roles leading different schools and willingness to work cooperatively with the OCBE made him the unanimous choice of the board to lead the OCDE at this time.”
Bean will be able to run for a full four-year term in 2026.
Bean’s impact at Irvine International Academy
Bean started at Irvine International Academy in 2022. There, he said, he helped “turn the organization around.”
“Irvine International Academy was just starting out, and in their very first year, as with many schools, had a lot of challenges and struggles, specifically breaking trust with the community, which involved teachers and staff,” Bean said. “So when I came on board, I wanted to repair those relationships by involving the community in what was best for the school.”
Before Bean’s arrival, said Irvine International Academy Board President Doug Husen, enrollment was fluctuating “dramatically,” and parents and administrators were at odds.
“Bean really came at the right time, to take us forward from a previous year that was really great academically but the community of parents and administrators did not come together,” Husen said. “He was the one who really unified the staff and the parents.”
Husen said Bean helped “build new policies for the school, managed the school’s budget and added music, STEAM and virtual reality programs.”
During the 2022-23 school year, 75% of Irvine International Academy students met or exceeded the standard for English language arts, 83% did for math and 50% for science. In comparison, only 45% of students statewide met or exceeded the standard for English, 34% for math and 30% for science that same year.
Before Bean started, 68% of Irvine International Academy students met or exceeded the standard for English language arts, 82% did for math and 84% for science. No data is recorded before the 2021-22 school year.
But Darshan Smaaladen, a leader of the recent recall of two conservative OUSD trustees, said she is concerned that Bean does not have the experience overseeing a “staff, budget or student population” as large as OCDE. During the 2023-24 school year, 372 students were enrolled at Irvine International Academy; Orange County’s total enrollment came out to 448,729 students.
Cal State Fullerton professor Nancy Watkins, who unsuccessfully ran for a spot on OCBE in March, called the appointment “controversial” and “biased,” alleging Bean “lacks capability.”
“The decision to appoint him appears to be politically motivated, raising questions about the board’s decision-making process,” Watkins said. “I am distressed that the appointment does not demonstrate the merit and qualifications needed to serve our county students and was made to give the current board more influence over the OCDE.”
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But placing Bean in this position does have the potential to be a positive move, said Cal State Long Beach professor William Jeynes.
“Stefan Bean has a very interesting combination of qualities that make him probably the most diverse candidate realistically available,” Jeynes said. “He is a person of color from Vietnam who experienced learning English as a second language. He is also disabled. This alone opens the door for a lot of progress on a vast array of issues.”
“I just think we need to give him a chance,” Jeynes said.