UPDATE:

Former emergency manager named interim Flint schools superintendent

FLINT, MI -- Change is in store at Flint Community Schools as Superintendent Bilal Tawwab and assistant superintendent Shawn Merriweather are on their way out from the district.

Tawwab, Merriweather and general counsel Gwendolyn A. de Jongh have been placed on administrative leave effective immediately, according to a March 13 statement from board president Diana Wright.

The school board is expected to hold a special meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday night to appoint an interim superintendent.

"The Flint Community Schools Board of Education has decided to move forward immediately in the process of identifying the next leader for the District," Wright said in her statement.

Wright added the district will take "appropriate steps" to begin the search process for a permanent replacement, but she could not be immediately reached Tuesday afternoon for further comment on why the officials were placed on leave.

Other board members contacted by MLive-The Flint Journal directed questions to Wright.

Tawwab had alerted the district he was stepping down following the 2018-19 school year. He's been the superintendent at Flint schools since July 2015 after serving an assistant superintendent at Detroit Public Schools.

Security was on-site at the district's administration building Tuesday as standard human resources protocol, but it was not engaged in escorting anyone from the facility, according to Wright.

The district was able to dig out of a nearly $22 million deficit in two years under Tawwab's leadership, but the school district continues to lose students, falling to the fourth-largest district in the county by fall 2017 count figures -- behind Grand Blanc, Davison, and Carman-Ainsworth.