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Seattle School Board To Appoint Interim Superintendent At Special Meeting

The Seattle School Board will hold a special meeting on Friday to select an interim superintendent, district officials said.

The 4:15 meeting, which will be streamed online, will be followed by a news conference around 5 p.m., officials said.

The superintendent position is being vacated by José Banda, who has accepted a superintendent position in Sacramento, California. His appointment was finalized Thursday.

Banda, who fulfilled two years of his three-year contract in Seattle, has said the Sacramento position would place him closer to family members. Banda is the third superintendent to leave the post in four years. 

As for an interim superintendent, the school board could pick from among Seattle Public Schools’ top brass as it did last time. When Maria Goodloe-Johnson was ousted from the job amid a financial scandal in 2011, the board chose her chief academic officer Susan Enfield as interim successor.

Enfield surprised the district when she declined to apply for the permanent position.  And she won’t be a contender this time, either. Her current contract as superintendent with the Highline School District has been extended through 2017.  

If the past is any indication of the future, the board will conduct a national search to name a permanent replacement for Banda. The next superintendent will face a surge in student population and a lack of space. He or she will also oversee the adoption of a new math curriculum.