Lisa Sayles-Adams’ career as an educator began in the Minneapolis Public Schools, and she will be returning to the district as its next superintendent.

The school board named her the sole finalist for the job Friday, citing her experience in Minnesota and knowledge of Minneapolis, in addition to her ability to build trust and measure progress.

Board Chair Sharon El-Amin said Sayles-Adams, who is currently the superintendent of the Eastern Carver County Schools, pledged to listen, learn and lead.

“That is what we need in our district,” El-Amin said. “She brings an abundance of experience. She brings a connection with the community — she was a teacher in Minneapolis public schools and her children attended Minneapolis public schools.”

Sayles-Adams was chosen over the other candidate, Sonia Stewart, the deputy superintendent of Hamilton County Public Schools in Chattanooga, Tenn.

“I am so honored and delighted to be selected as the next superintendent for Minneapolis Public Schools,” Sayles-Adams said in an interview after her selection. “This is certainly a dream job.”

Her start date and salary will be negotiated as part of the contract, which the board must also approve.

Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox’s salary was $230,000, the same amount that former Superintendent Ed Graff was earning when he left the district in 2022.

Cox’s extended term officially ends at the end of June 2024, but her contract includes a clause stating that, with mutual consent, it can end early if a permanent superintendent is ready to start before July.

No matter the start date, the new superintendent is entering a district facing numerous challenges, requiring a leader ready to make tough decisions.

District staff members have long warned of a looming fiscal crisis, exacerbated by the 2024 sunsetting of millions in federal pandemic relief funds. And the board is in ongoing discussions about a “district transformation” that could include closing and consolidating schools. The city’s schools serve less than 28,000 students now but have capacity for more than 40,000.

In answering questions about why they were drawn to Minneapolis Public Schools, both candidates said they are up to the task and willing and ready to make tough choices.

Stewart pointed to the district’s strategic plan and mission statement to “provide a high quality, anti-racist, culturally responsive education for every Minneapolis student” and said it’s proof that Minneapolis Public Schools is aspirational.

“If this school district is who they say they are, this is a team I can do work with and partner with really, really well,” she said. “That’s why I’m here and why I’m here now.”

For Sayles-Adams, coming to Minneapolis Public Schools as a leader would be “full circle,” and like “coming home,” she said in her interview with the board.

She started her career in the district nearly three decades ago and worked in schools on the city’s north side.

“I am ready to come back to where I started because I know that I can help,” Sayles-Adams said.

The district’s search for its next permanent superintendent has stretched for more than a year. The board decided in January to delay the search to allow for more community engagement and extended Cox’s interim superintendent contract. If she serves in her role until the end of June 2024, Cox will have led the district for two years.

The district’s contracts with permanent superintendents are typically for three years.

Stewart: Experience with change in Tennessee

Stewart’s career includes 13 years in the Nashville, Tenn., public schools, where she worked as a high school principal, a math teacher, basketball coach and executive officer of organizational development.

In 2018, Stewart published a book chronicling her years as a principal of Nashville’s Pearl-Cohn High School, a high-poverty school serving primarily Black students. In the book, she writes of the challenges — violence and economic disparities chief among them — in the school and surrounding community, and she details how she improved the school culture.

Stewart, 49, has been deputy superintendent of Hamilton County Schools for nearly two years. The district serves 44,000 students across nearly 80 schools and is considering a plan to consolidate its smaller schools.

She earned a doctorate of education from Vanderbilt University.

Sayles-Adams: Longtime leader in Twin Cities schools

Sayles-Adams, 54, started in Minneapolis Public Schools in the late 1990s and served as a teacher and coordinator before becoming a principal of City Alternative High School.

She then served as a principal in schools in Georgia before returning to Minnesota, where she worked as a principal in St. Paul Public Schools before becoming an assistant superintendent in that district. After five years in that role, she became an assistant superintendent in the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District and then, in 2020, took the helm at Eastern Carver County Schools, which serves about 9,600 students.

She has a doctorate in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and completed her dissertation on African American women principals.

She is the niece of former Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, the first African American and first female mayor of Minneapolis.

Tonight’s board meeting will be live-streamed at https://mps.eduvision.tv/LiveEvents.

Staff writer Liz Navratil contributed to this story.