As titles go, Lindi Dreibelbis’ is substantial: She is (deep breath) La Cañada Unified School District’s Chief Director of Assessment, Research, Consolidated Programs and CALPADS.
Her duties put her in charge of state-mandated assessments and have her making reports to the state and federal government, as well as monitoring the state accountability system for school and district progress. She’s charged with pursuing grants, overseeing daily attendance practices and providing leadership for the English Language Development Program. She’s also tasked with maintaining individual-level data on student demographics, courses, discipline, assessments and staff assignments.
In essence, she’s the district’s “data queen.”
And on June 29, after 20 years with the district and 38 in the field of education, Dreibelbis plans to retire.
“When I first got my job in La Cañada Flintridge, I was thrilled to work here and that satisfaction has carried me through my whole career here,” she said. “I’m so proud of the work our teachers do and so proud of the students who attend our schools. We’re very blessed and lucky to work in such an excellent and rigorous environment. I’ve always believed if you set high expectations, students will meet them — and students here meet and exceed our expectations daily.”
Dreibelbis has seen that in her own home: Her children, Kelly Arthur and Grant Arthur both graduated from La Cañada High School; Kelly is soon to graduate from veterinary school and Grant is a basketball player and business major at Cal State Los Angeles.
“I’m tickled pink about my kids being so successful,” said Dreibelbis, a La Cañada Flintridge resident. “In many ways, La Cañada schools prepared them for success in college and beyond.”
Their mom has notched successes throughout her career as well, including receiving recognition from the California Department of Education for data management and stewardship, garnering an invitation to represent LCUSD in South Korea and China in select educational programs and also receiving one of five national international scholarships for French teachers from the Alliance Francaise.
Before earning a promotion to the district office in 2002, Dreibelbis served as associate and assistant principal at La Cañada High School. Previously, she was a French teacher, both at Pasadena High School and, before that, in New Mexico (those teaching duties included chaperoning nine trips to France, she was happy to say.)
Her appreciation of languages has proved valuable in her current role, which includes leading the English learning development program.
LCUSD has more than 30 languages represented among its student body, she said.
“I hopefully brought a culture of appreciation and acknowledgment that people live and talk and sometimes operate differently, and we need to address who walks through our doors,” Dreibelbis said, adding, “I certainly hope I’ve made a difference, whether to students directly or to administrators who’ve come along after me to help them understand our school district.”
Superintendent Wendy Sinnette commended Dreibelbis for her versatility. “Her position has evolved over the years,” said Sinnette, who indicated Dreibelbis shared her retirement plans with the district in plenty of time for it to establish a plan for redistributing her varied duties.
“She’s really multifaceted and she’s done a wonderful job at that. So much of her work is behind the scenes and it’s been vitally important to the district. She’s served as our compliance officer, she’s guided and led the way for all of our assessment programs, which is very important to this district, and a lot of her behind-the-scenes work has helped support our kids in being very, very successful in the state testing program.
“[Twenty years] is a long stretch and we greatly appreciate all the service she’s provided.”
