Massachusetts Education Secretary Matthew H. Malone is in the running to become Boston schools’ next superintendent, The Boston Globe reports.
Malone, who was appointed state Education Secretary in January 2013, made his intentions known in an ethics disclosure form dated March 26, which the newspaper obtained through an open records request, the paper said.
The district of nearly 57,000 students has been without a permanent superintendent since Carol R. Johnson retired after six years at the end of the 2012-13 school year to spend more time with her family. Since then, the district’s chief financial officer, John McDonough, has been serving as the interim superintendent.
Malone’s is the first name to emerge publicly as the district ramps up its search for a new superintendent, which it hopes will be in place by the start of the new school year, according to The Globe.
He told The Globe in a statement that he was “humbled to be considered for the position” and noted that he started his career as a teacher in Boston’s public schools and is the parent of two BPS students.
The district is under mayoral control, and education figured prominently in last year’s mayoral election, as my colleague, Lesli Maxwell, reported during the campaign.
The Globe said that Malone, 44, was required to file the ethics disclosure form under the state’s conflict of interest law, because his work as education secretary and a member of the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education may put him in a position to influence decisions affecting the city’s schools.
Before being tapped to serve as education secretary in Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration, Malone, a former Boston Public School headmaster, worked as superintendent in the Brockton school district, a post he had held since 2009. He also served as a superintendent in Swampscott and worked as a special assistant to the superintendent in San Diego.