The superintendent and receiver of the Lawrence school system and educators from New York and Texas are the finalists to become the next education commissioner in Massachusetts, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced Monday.
Lawrence receiver Jeff Riley, Penny Schwinn, chief deputy commissioner of academics for the Texas Education Agency, and Angélica Infante-Green, deputy commissioner of the Office of Instructional Support P-12 in New York State Education Department, will be interviewed next week by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The board hopes to recommend a candidate to Education Secretary James Peyser later this month.
Paul Sagan, who chairs the board, said whichever candidate is ultimately selected "will be extremely qualified to build on our track record of educational excellence and address the need to close the achievement gaps that remain among our most urgent challenges."
The candidates
Infante-Green has held her post in New York, where she directs programmatic and administrative activities, since 2015. She previously served as associate commissioner of the New York education department's office of bilingual education and world languages, and as assistant superintendent and executive director of the New York City education department's office of English language learners. She began her career teaching in New York City public schools.
Prior to coming to Texas in 2016, Schwinn was associate education secretary in Delaware. She started her career as a teacher in Baltimore, founded Capitol Collegiate Academy, a charter school in Sacramento, and served as assistant superintendent of performance management and strategic initiatives for the Sacramento City Unified School District.
The late Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester tapped Riley as Lawrence receiver in January 2012. Previously, Riley was academic superintendent and chief innovation officer at the Boston Public Schools. He has also taught in Baltimore, and served as an administrator at the Boston's High Tech Academy at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, and principal of Edwards Middle School in Boston and Tyngsborough Middle School.
Replacing Chester
Rep. Alice Peisch, House chairman of the Education Committee, said she hopes the next commissioner will be someone "who is able to establish good relationships with various stakeholder groups" and "not necessarily agree, but be able to listen to and understand" the interest groups involved in education policy.
"I certainly think that whomever is appointed has big shoes to fill," Peisch told the News Service. "The former commissioner was really committed to closing the achievement gap, and ensuring that all children, regardless of where they lived or their backgrounds, had access to a high-quality education, so I certainly would be looking for that same type of commitment in whomever the replacement is."
Chester was the longest-serving chief state school officer in the country when he died of cancer at age 65.
Jeff Wulfson, the department's deputy commissioner, has been holding the top job on an acting basis since Chester's death last June. Wulfson was not a candidate for the permanent post, he has said.
Eighteen people applied for the job, according to the education department. Sagan has previously said about two-thirds of the applicants were from out of state, more than a third were women and about 40 percent were minorities or represented underserved communities.
The next commissioner will step into a role that's been filled by only four men since 1986, excluding interim commissioners.
Chester came to Massachusetts in 2008 from the Ohio Department of Education, after the retirement of David Driscoll, who held the post for nearly two decades and previously had been deputy commissioner.
Robert Antonucci, a former Falmouth schools superintendent, was the commissioner from 1992 until 1998, when he left for a private-sector education job in Pennsylvania. He succeeded Harold Raynolds, who took the post in 1986 and resigned about five years later in frustration over education budget cuts.
A preliminary screening committee that included board members as well as educators and community members, interviewed applicants in private session earlier this month.
What's next?
The full board plans to interview the three finalists in public session next Friday, Jan. 26, at the Omni Parker House in Boston. A separate board meeting is scheduled for the following Monday, Jan. 29, at the education department's Malden office, for board members to discuss the candidates and recommend one to Peyser.