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Schools chief names
deputies for new roles

Laurel Johnston monitors budgeting;
Deborah Oyama, communications

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

State schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu has appointed two assistant superintendents to head newly created offices.

Laurel Johnston will head the new Office of Planning, Budget and Resources Development, to oversee the Department of Education's planning and budget branches.

Johnston previously served as staff director for the state Senate Judiciary Committee.

For five years beginning in 1991, she was senior legislative researcher for the Senate majority office and, before that, legislative analyst and audit manager in the state auditor's office.

She has a master's degree in public administration and bachelor's degree in criminology from Florida State University.

Deborah Oyama will head the new office of Public Affairs, to oversee internal and external communications, community partnership programs and resolution of conflicts in public schools over the Felix consent decree.

Oyama has been community economic development manager in the office of public affairs at GTE Hawaiian Tel, where she managed community programs and activities such as GTE Literacy Champions and the phone book recycling program. She is president of the Honolulu District School-to-Career Council and chaired the district's first School-to-Work Conference.

Oyama has a bachelor's degree in sociology from Pomona College, and a master's in urban planning from the University of North Carolina.

The Board of Education confirmed their appointments May 11.