Last Friday Dr. Brenda Cassellius announced that she would be stepping down as EMID’s superintendent in order to become Minnesota’s Commissioner of Education today. As she wrote in her blog:

This means I will lead the Department of Education, with responsibilities for operations and policymaking for all aspects of education — from implementing No Child Left Behind and supporting PreK-12 learning, to community ed and higher education. This is an unexpected honor and I am humbled to have been asked to serve our great state in this role.

Her sudden departure from EMID leaves a lot of balls in the air. In combination with the departure of EMID’s longtime board chair, families and EMID staff and administrators will have their hands full trying to keep the district on course.

The EMID Board announced that it will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, January 5th at 5:30pm at Harambee to discuss the appointment of an interim superintendent.

UPDATE: Brenda later clarified that higher education is actually not part of the portfolio of the Department of Education. That role actually belongs to the Office of Higher Education.