There he was, the smiling superintendent of the School District.

Dr. Josh Arnold.

Father of two. Husband of one. Leader of 6,000-plus students in Culver City.

He may not have been Alexander the Great – who died at 33.

But he was conquering Culver City worlds that his predecessors had not been able to defeat.

• Since the last century, District officials have been talking about an air conditioning system at El Marino Language School, hard by the wildly busy 405 Freeway.

“El Marino should be done this summer,” said Dr. Arnold.

Never mind that he will be miles away doing something else when the target date is reached.

“Filtration happened last summer,” he said. “For the filtration to be 100 percent effective, though, the rooms need to be air-conditioned so they can keep the rooms closed, regardless of the weather.

“Barring any construction hiccups, we expect all of the El Marino classrooms to be air conditioned by the first day of school,” said Dr. Arnold.

• The grand prize winner on Dr. Arnold’s achievement list was winning approval for this summer’s planned leveling the Natatorium, one of the community’s longest-running eyesores. Next summer it will be replaced by a gleaming two-story science building that will accommodate Middle School and Culver City High School students.

Suggestions for disposition of the Natatorium have been dribbling in since the 1970s beauty-challenged structure went up.

By Dr. Arnold, the solution was, uh, direct.

“Having a plan for what to do with the space was really important,” he said.

How elementary, as they say in detective circles.

(To be continued)