Diana Crofts was announced last week as the new Director of Student Services and Special Education Coordinator for the Ripon Unified School District.

She’ll take over the position currently held by Lisa Mazza, who announced her end-of-the-school-year retirement back in January.

Superintendent Ziggy Robeson also announced her retirement not too long after. RUSD has been conducting a search for the next superintendent.

At the April 7 school board meeting, Human Resources Manager Krista Galvan noted that positions for the 2025-2026 school year were filled following three job fairs.

Included was the third annual RUSD Job Fair in early January. The two-day job fair gave the district an early start to seek out new hires. “We got to show off what Ripon Unified was all about,” Galvan said.

The theme was “Helping Students Dream Big Starts with You.”

About 80 candidates were in attendance at the local job fair, both certificated and classified, with Galvan indicated that four teachers were hired during that time.

Ripon Unified took part in the Teachers Job Fair held Feb. 8 at California State University, Stanislaus. The result of that was three teachers being hired.

On March 15, RUSD was involved in the Educator Job Fair held at the San Joaquin County Office of Education at Teachers College.

By then, all of the positions were filled, according to Galvan. Still, the event held in Stockton provided the local school district with some exposure to future candidates.