LAUSD Meets Again To Consider Last 2 Finalists For Superintendent

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — And then there were two.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board will have only two names consider when it meets Tuesday in its latest attempt to select a new superintendent, now that Andres Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, announced on Twitter that he had pulled his name from consideration.

"To those sending best wishes on the LAUSD superintendent job, I withdrew from the process on Monday, when a possibility emerged -- no guarantee -- in relation to the school system I first loved," Alonso wrote Friday without elaborating. "I am grateful to the LAUSD board for its consideration and wish the city the best."

Another finalist for the position, Indianapolis schools Superintendent Lewis Ferebee, withdrew his name from consideration in late April.

The process is now down to current Interim Superintendent Vivian Ekchian and former investment banker and Los Angeles Times Publisher Austin Beutner, who is reported to be the favorite among the board.

LAUSD, the second largest school district in the nation, has been without a firm superintendent since Michelle King went on medical leave in September. She announced in January that she was battling cancer and would not return to the job.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the only unknown about Beutner's selection is whether he will receive four or five votes from the panel's seven members. Beutner would bring a diverse work history – he is a businessman turned philanthropist who once ran for mayor with a stint as a Los Angeles Times publisher – but he has no experience managing a school or a school district.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)