Beleaguered Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy announced Thursday that he had tendered his resignation.
Deasy would stay on with the district on a special assignment through the end of the year, according to a join statement from the superintendent and the school district.
Former Supt. Ramon Cortines was appointed to serve temporarily as Superintendent of Schools until a replacement for Deasy can be found, according to a separate statement from LAUSD.
He would begin his tenure on Oct. 20.
Several sources told the the Los Angeles Times that Deasy’s expected resignation came after he reached a settlement with the school board.
As part of the severance agreement, he would receive about 60 days’ pay, which would equal about $60,000, according to the paper.
Deasy, 53, has led the nation’s second-largest school district for 3.5 years. During that time, he has faced much scrutiny and criticism, particularly over a technology program that he pushed for which would have spent more than $1 billion to provide an iPad to every student, teacher and administrator at LAUSD schools.
The program was suspended in August after it was discovered that Deasy and his top deputy had ties to Apple executives and the company that was providing the curriculum for the iPads.
The controversy was addressed in Thursday’s joint statement.
“While the District’s investigation into the Common Core Technology Project has not concluded, the Board wishes to state that at this time, it does not believe that the Superintendent engaged in any ethical violations or unlawful acts, and the Board anticipates that the Inspector General’s report will confirm this,” the statement read.
He also came under fire after a new student information system called MiSIS malfunctioned upon making its debut at the start of the school year. The $130 million program was blamed for scheduling blunders that left some district students without classes for weeks, according to the Times.
Deasy also had a contentious relationship with teachers. The rift between the superintendent and teachers got so bad that union members staged protests against Deasy a couple of weeks ago on the same day that he was up for review.
“We believe that John Deasy is responsible for causing serious problems in this district,” Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the day of the protest.
Deasy’s contract was set to expire in June 2016.
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