Clovis Unified Hall of Famer Named New Superintendent

Corrine Folmer is Clovis Unified School District’s next superintendent.

Trustees voted 7-0 to promote Folmer, currently a Clovis Unified associate superintendent, at a special meeting Monday night. She replaces outgoing superintendent Eimear O’Brien, who will leave by June 30.

Folmer, 44, officially starts on July 1.

After the announcement, Folmer said she was “honored and humbled.”

“I had the privilege to serve as a teacher, coach and an administrator. And it’s just something I believe in,” Folmer said.

Folmer is also in the Clovis Unified Athletics Hall of Fame, as a member of the 1994 Buchanan High girls cross country team. That team won the state championship — the district’s first girls state champion ever.

That experience shaped to her to become superintendent-designate.

“It would be an understatement to say that my coaches and the teachers I had didn’t shape me for the moment here today. (They taught me the) values of this district and the hard work that it takes and what it means to put kids first. And I was a great beneficiary of that,” Folmer said.

The most immediate challenge, Folmer said, was the expanding population of the district.

“With that growth comes things like boundaries and staffing,” Folmer said.

Her first job in education was out of college, teaching at Sierra High School in Tollhouse.

Folmer served in district administration at Clovis Unified as a principal and as the district superintendent for the Clovis East area before her promotion to associate superintendent in February 2020.

She graduated from Fresno State in 2001, later earning her master’s (2008) and a doctorate in education (2021) from the same school.

Corrine Folmer, left, sits with Clovis Unified Superintendent Eimear O’Brien. (GV Wire/David Taub)

Six Candidates Interviewed

The board interviewed six candidates last Saturday in a special closed session meeting. A vote to ratify Folmer’s contract is scheduled for March 29.

Board president David DeFrank said Folmer had the “breadth of experience.”

“She has experience across all levels of our district. And I think that will serve her very well. She has a reputation for building a culture of teamwork and trust everywhere she goes. And that leadership style has manifested in beneficial results for our students along the way,” DeFrank said.

O’Brien Leaving

O’Brien announced in January that she is retiring to help her siblings care for their aging mother in Ireland. The district hired O’Brien in 2017 — another internal candidate to replace the retiring Janet Young.

The trustees met their self-imposed deadline set in January to hire a new superintendent by mid-March. Board vice president Hugh Awtrey said at the time the goal was to fill positions if an internal domino effect occurred.