County school board formally chooses leading CEO candidate

Friday, Feb. 17, 2006

by Guy Leonard

Staff Writer

The Prince George’s County School Board voted unanimously Feb. 16 to make John Deasy, superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in California, the leading candidate for schools’ CEO.

The resolution, made during the regularly scheduled board meeting, was introduced as an emergency measure, indicating that the board wanted to move quickly on the appointment.

Board members will now make a site visit to Deasy’s district to see the work he has done there.

Since May 2005, Howard Burnett has been interim CEO of the Prince George’s County Public Schools.

Board Chairwoman Beatrice Tignor praised her colleagues for their work in choosing Deasy as the leading candidate. She also thanked the community for its support.

‘‘This has been a long journey but we’ve done it together,” Tignor said.

Two other candidates were also under consideration: Marcia V. Lyles, a regional superintendent for New York City Public Schools, and W.L. ‘‘Tony” Sawyer, superintendent of Topeka, Kansas Public Schools. Deasy came out on top from an original list of 66 candidates.

E-mail Guy Leonard at gleonard@gazette.net.

CEO search in The Gazette:

Communities left off school CEO search list (Oct. 18, 2005)

CEO search firm familiar with county (Sept. 20, 2005)

Stone: Schools chief search is on (Sept. 20, 2005)

Groups push to halt selection of schools' CEO (Aug. 23, 2005)

School board chairwoman hopes new programs and plans will outweigh past controversies (July 20, 2005)

School board deliberates, names buzzing for CEO job (June 22, 2005)