Oregon's largest school district has a permanent leader running the show for the first time since mid-July of 2016.
Ending 14-plus months of interim leadership, Guadalupe Guerrero, until now a deputy superintendent of San Francisco schools, began work as head of Portland Public Schools today.
He has a lot on his plate. The district's headquarters is rife with vacancies, including an assistant superintendent and key budget officials. Officials have been unable to recruit and retain enough talented principals, and plans to replace K-8 schools that are delivering watered-down options to too many minority and low-income middle grades students are behind schedule and kicking up a lot of controversy.
The dysfunction that allowed an educator dogged by complaints of sexual misconduct to dodge consequences for years haven't been fixed.
Portland's school board has expressed high hopes the first-time superintendent will be able to deliver. Parents, students, board members and taxpayers will be watching with high hopes.
Guerrero spent part of his first morning at a Portland school buffeted by challenges and change: Cesar Chavez K-8 school. The North Portland school, which has seen heavy turnover in its leadership and faculty in recent years, was abruptly given a new principal, TJ Fuller, on Thursday.
Paige Kelsey, who was appointed to her first principal's job in Portland Public Schools over the summer, was expected to lead the school all year but left less than five weeks in.
The district's announcement of Fuller's move to Chavez, which yanked him out of Rigler School where he had just begun his his third year as Rigler principal, did not say a word about Kelsey's departure.
Rigler Vice Principal Jennifer Fontana stepped up Thursday to lead that school.