Rudolph “Rudy” Crew, the sole finalist for the DeKalb County School District superintendent job, was rejected by the Board of Education in a 4-3 vote May 11.
DeKalb Schools said in a written statement that it is “reviewing its next steps” and intends to identify another candidate to become interim superintendent by July 1. That is the day after current Superintendent Ramona Tyson is scheduled to retire.
Crew, president of Medgar Evers College in New York City, was the sole finalist among 68 candidates in a months-long process, according to DeKalb Schools. His candidacy drew criticism from some parents groups for prominent controversies in his past, including an acrimonious exit as Flordia’s Miami-Dade County schools superintendent amid budget shortfalls and racial discrimination accusations, allegation of misspending of public money at Medgar Evers College, and a 1990s dispute over the failure to secure a room in a school where a student was later raped.