State education department names new temporary leader after sudden resignation
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced a new head of the state’s K-12 schools on Wednesday.
Lisa Sireno will serve as interim commissioner for the department, DESE said in a news release. Sireno was the department’s deputy commissioner of learning services, a job she took over in July.
Sireno is DESE’s third leader this year. Stacey Preis announced her sudden resignation on Tuesday following a State Board of Education meeting. Preis had been working as commissioner after Karla Eslinger retired on June 1.
The state board is in a national search for Missouri’s next K-12 education leader. The group hired The K12 Search Group on Tuesday to help it find a new commissioner, with money coming from unnamed “philanthropic organizations” through the National Association of State Boards of Education. Some state education groups and lawmakers have criticized DESE’s decision to use private funding for the search firm as an issue of transparency.
Sireno has worked at DESE since 2015 in various roles on career readiness and assessment. She worked as the University of Missouri’s director of resource assessment before joining DESE, the department said.
Wheaton R-3 Superintendent Alyssa Kennedy attended Tuesday’s board meeting. She said she hopes Sireno can keep the transition from slowing down work for schools.
“I hope that she’s able to help in that transition and make sure there’s no delay in getting schools what they need,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said the permanent commissioner should have experience in public education, including in classrooms.
“I think the overall scope of that job needs to be somebody who has been in public education for a significant amount of time, somebody that has taught in our public education classrooms and understands specifically currently what is plaguing public education in the state of Missouri. I think that is what we need as a commissioner,” Kennedy said.
State Rep. Ed Lewis (R-Moberly) said he expects DESE’s routine work to continue, but thinks the transition could make it harder to move major policy changes forward.
“Ordinary daily operations will continue. Pretty much. I think big decisions, big shifts, big policy things, it’ll be hard to move those things forward,” Lewis said.
State Rep. Kathy Steinhoff (D-Columbia) said she wants more confidence and direction in state education leadership.
“I just think we need to have some confidence in what is happening in regards to leading education in this state. And there are way too many examples of things that have happened in the last year that they don’t feel like there’s confidence there. They don’t feel like there’s direction because we are kind of jumping all over the place,” Steinhoff said.
The State Board has not announced how long Sireno will serve as interim commissioner or when it expects to select a permanent commissioner. DESE said it will share more information about the selection as it becomes available.
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