IPS superintendent Lewis Ferebee withdraws name from consideration for LA job

Update, 4/18/18 at 4:22 p.m.: Lewis Ferebee, superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the top job for the L.A. Unified School District.

Ferebee released this statement Thursday afternoon:

"Recently, I was announced as one of the finalists for the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent position. After further discussing this endeavor with my family, the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners, and those handling the search process, I have withdrawn my name from consideration. It was an honor to have been considered for an opportunity of this magnitude."

Previously:

Lewis Ferebee, superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, is in the running to lead the Los Angeles school district.

Ferebee's name was first listed among finalist for the job in a report from The Los Angeles Times. Ferebee's candidacy was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by Michael O'Connor, president of the IPS school board.

"He alerted me this morning that he'd been notified he was a finalist," O'Connor said. "While he was going to talk to them, he had not made a decision he was fully interested or would take it were it to be offered."

O'Connor said he did not know whether Ferebee had visited Los Angeles, yet, or if the process had been remote.

"I suspect it's been remote," he said. "I don't know. He might be out there now."

Ferebee did not respond to a request for comment.

L.A. Unified, the country's second-largest school district, has been searching for a new leader since February when then-Superintendent Michelle King announced she had cancer and would not return from medical leave.

According to the LA Times report, Ferebee is one of four finalists. The front-runner appears to be Austin Beutner, a former investment banker. The report says that Beutner looks to have more support on the seven-member board but he is facing some controversy after it was revealed that his nonprofit, Vision to Learn, has fallen short in its commitment to provide vision screenings and glasses to low-income students.

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Interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who has been managing the district since King left on medical leave last fall, also made it to the second round, according to the report. It names​ ​Ferebee and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso, who teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as two more possible finalists.

Ferebee has been with IPS since 2013. His contract was renewed in 2016, extending his original employment term into 2019. He received a salary bump of 2.24 percent this school year, bringing his base pay up to $214,581 a year. In November, he was awarded a $28,000 performance bonus. Combined with annual retirement contributions and a monthly automobile allowance, his annual compensation tops $286,768.

Previously, he worked at several districts in North Carolina. Most recently, Ferebee served as chief of staff for Durham Public Schools, a struggling urban district, not unlike IPS.

The move to L.A. Unified would be a big jump for Ferebee. The district serves more than 700,000 students, compared to the 30,000 enrolled in IPS, but faces many of the same budget and competition challenges — albeit on a much larger scale.

O'Connor said it shouldn't come as a surprise that other districts are interested in the IPS chief, given district's innovative approach and academic improvement under Ferebee's tenure. The district's graduation rate has improved from 68 percent to 83 percent, during his five years at IPS.

Ferebee has created a name for himself nationally for the district's close collaboration with charter schools, unusual for a public school system. Under Ferebee's tenure, the district has brought eight independent charter schools into the IPS fold and converted eight existing schools to "innovation schools" network. Several more schools are slated to join the innovation network in the fall.

That could be interesting for L.A. Unified, which has 277 charter schools under its jurisdiction and also allows for conversion of existing district schools to charters.

Should he leave, Ferebee's departure would come at a crucial time for IPS. The district is in the midst of closing three high schools and a middle school, completely overhauling its academic model for high schools and planning a tax-hike referendum for the fall ballot, with the help of the Indy Chamber.

"Our work with the chamber will continue," O'Connor said. "The work we’re doing to deal with the budget deficit, the work we’re doing in getting high schools ready for next fall... all that will have to go on. It's incumbent upon us to make that work."

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.