Indianapolis Ponders the Post-Zendejas Era

By Bess Keller

The likely departure of the Indianapolis schools chief amounts to a watershed event for that district. Or not, depending on whom you ask.

Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas announced this month that she plans to step down a year before her contract ends in spring 1999. Ms. Zendejas--who came to Indianapolis in May 1995 with marching orders to boost student achievement--said school board support for her reform efforts was uncertain now and might erode further after a May election, when four of the seven seats are up for grabs.

"It appears unlikely that there will be consensus about reforms essential for the long-range vitality of the system," she wrote in an Oct. 7 letter to school...