Friday, September 11, 2009

Bill Kowba designated as Interim Superintendent

Statement from Board of Education President Shelia Jackson, Sept. 11, 2009

Yesterday afternoon, Superintendent Grier accepted the appointment as the new Superintendent at the Houston Independent School District. The Board has received his resignation letter and accepted his plan to leave his position effective October 20th. Dr. Grier will use his accrued leave time to make September 18 his last day at work.

On behalf of the Board of Education, we want to wish Dr. Grier every success in his new position and thank him once again for his service to San Diego Unified School District.

During the last two weeks, the Board of Education has had several meetings to discuss how we will ensure a smooth transition.

I want to assure our school community and the public that the Board is confident in the management team we have in place at our district. Today, we are pleased to announce that the Board has identified Bill Kowba as our Interim Superintendent subject to Board approval of an agreement at our next Board meeting on Tuesday, September 15th.

Mr. Kowba has been a key part of the district’s senior management team during the last four years. Bill served as our interim superintendent during the last transition. He has also played key roles in the District as our Finance Director and as Chief Logistics Officer. His detailed understanding of all aspects of our district operations and our schools make him uniquely qualified to lead our district operations.

We do not plan to rush to fill the Superintendent position since we believe we should consider our needs carefully and seek community input on what our priorities are for our district and for the position of the permanent superintendent of the district.
The Board will continue to meet in the next few weeks to determine our longer term plan to identify a permanent superintendent.