James A. Mousalimas, the new San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools, will be sworn in at a public ceremony on Friday, Jan. 9, at 5 p.m.

The event will take place in the Wentworth Education Center’s Burwood Auditorium at the San Joaquin County Office of Education which is hosting the event. The county office is located at 2707 Transworld Drive off Arch Road in Stockton.

To attend the swearing-in ceremony, send an R.S.V.P. to kfry@sjcoe.net or call 468.9107.

Mousalimas was the winner in the November run-off election between him and Jeff Tilton. Mousalimas was deputy superintendent at SJCOE under retiring Mick Founts. Tilton is superintendent of Delta Charter Schools in the New Jerusalem School District in Tracy.

Mousalimas taking the top post at the county Office of Education is significant for two reasons. He is filling a position that, in nearly a quarter century, was occupied by someone from Manteca. His immediate predecessor, Founts, is from the Manteca Unified School District. Before Founts was Frederick Wentworth, also from Manteca Unified, who was superintendent for several terms after being uncontested in several reelection bids.

The election that saw Mousalimas victorious was one for the books in that it was the first contested election since 1990.

Mousalimas served as Deputy Superintendent of Student Programs and Services for SJCOE from March 2013 to the end of this month.

Previously, he was assistant superintendent of Human Resources at Tracy Unified School District.

A former Peace Corps Volunteer High School teacher and basketball coach in Niger, West Africa, Mousalimas received his Administrative Services Credential from California State University, Stanislaus, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Master of Education in Administration from the College of New Jersey.