Senior Advisor
Stuart Packard
Stuart Packard is a recently retired California school superintendent with more than three decades in public education, most of it leading small and rural districts in the Central Valley. As Superintendent of the Buttonwillow Union Elementary School District in Kern County, he built a state-recognized small district and served as President of the Small School Districts' Association (SSDA), advocating for California's small and rural schools in Sacramento. At School Leaders, he advises superintendents and boards on small-district leadership, governance, fiscal strategy, and state advocacy.
“Stuart Packard is one of California's most respected champions of small and rural schools — a retired Central Valley superintendent and past president of the Small School Districts' Association who knows how to make every dollar and every position count.”
Background
Stuart Packard brings more than three decades of California public education leadership to the School Leaders team, with a career built almost entirely in the service of small and rural school districts. He most recently served as Superintendent of the Buttonwillow Union Elementary School District — a small district in Kern County, in California's Central Valley — where he also oversaw the district's West Kern Charter.
Under Packard's leadership, Buttonwillow earned recognition as one of California's top small school districts. He led the district to AVID certification, drove measurable gains in mathematics and English language arts, launched targeted intervention programs, and built partnerships with higher education and community organizations that expanded opportunity for students in a rural farming community.
Packard is one of California's most recognized voices for small and rural schools. He served as President of the Small School Districts' Association (SSDA) — the statewide organization representing California's small districts in Sacramento — after joining its executive board in 2013 and serving as Vice President for Legislative Action. His leadership priorities centered on mentoring small-district superintendents, defending small-district funding, closing the digital divide, and making sure the voice of small schools is heard in state policy. He has also served on the Schools Legal Service Board of Directors, the Kern County Facilities Committee, the Kern County SELPA Executive Council, and as an alternate on the Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC) board.
Packard's path to the superintendency was anything but typical. He began his career in banking before earning his teaching credential from the University of La Verne, teaching in the Ontario-Montclair School District, and moving to Kern County, where he advanced from the classroom to district leadership. That blend of business discipline and classroom-rooted values shapes how he advises districts today.
At School Leaders, Packard partners with superintendents, school boards, and county offices on the challenges small and rural districts face every day — executive leadership and governance, fiscal strategy, state advocacy, and the operational realities of running a district where every dollar and every position counts.
Want to work with Stuart?
Most engagements start with a 30-minute call.