Carstarphen to be offered Austin job today

by Tom Weber, Minnesota Public Radio

The Austin, Texas School Board will formally offer its top job Monday to the head of the St. Paul School District.

St. Paul, Minn. — St. Paul Superintendent Meria Carstarphen was named the only finalist for the top job in Austin three weeks ago, but Texas law requires a waiting period before school boards can actually make a job offer.

In that three weeks, Carstarphen has attended a number of public meetings in Austin, offering her thoughts on how to run a district that has more than twice as many students as the St. Paul district.

Carstarphen has said she'll remain in St. Paul through the end of this school year - her departure comes about three years after taking the job in Minnesota.

The district is in the middle of what it calls a large-scale system change - a complete review and overhaul of just about every aspect of the way the district is run.

Some school board members have said the system change will continue.

St. Paul now faces the added task of finding a new superintendent and will have to decide whether to conduct a national search, or hire from within the district or community.