Considering a school board run: Paul Vallas, the superintendent of the state-run school district in New Orleans, is exploring a run for the Cook County Board in 2010, in his native Illinois. Vallas said he plans to stay with the Recovery School District through the next school year but is looking to recruit the next team of leaders to take over. He hopes to have the team in place for the upcoming school year and to take a more diminished role himself—and begin transitioning out—by January. The Chicago Sun-Times, in a report published today, said Vallas would return home at the end of the year to run for Cook County Board president.
The work must go on: The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is adjusting its funding system to ensure that high-profile projects continue as planned. The agency says work will continue as planned on projects including the John James Audubon Bridge in St. Francisville and the widening of the Huey P. Long Bridge near New Orleans. Transportation Secretary William Ankner says the funding adjustment will mean that some more routine highway work will not get done, in order to continue paying for the bridges and other projects deemed high-priority by the Legislature.
