Michelle King, the chief deputy superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified schools, will serve as the district’s interim superintendent until a permanent successor is announced.
The L.A. Unified school board’s search for a school chief has stretched on longer than expected. The board had plans to announce a replacement for retiring Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines over the weekend, but didn’t.
King had already served as acting superintendent for more than a week, because Cortines unofficially retired this month. The latest stint marked Cortines’ third tour at the helm.
King is among the candidates vying to lead the 640,000-student district, the nation’s second-largest, but the Los Angeles Times reports that there is no indication that her “provisional promotion is either an endorsement or a sign that she’s out of the running.”
The Times reports that among the educators who are under consideration or who have been recruited include Fremont, Calif., Superintendent Jim Morris, who was a longtime L.A. Unified senior administrator; San Francisco Unified Superintendent Richard Carranza; and Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
Carranza was among the 2015 class of Education Week‘s Leaders to Learn From. AASA, the School Superintendents Association, selected Carvalho as the 2014 national Superintendent of the Year.
The school board will meet in early January to discuss their next steps.