LAUSD Superintendent Cortines Quits, Then Takes it Back

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines dangled a threat of resignation yesterday, then took it back, reports LA Now.

Cortines has already announced he will retire in 2011, and over the summer John Deasy was installed as Deputy Superintendent, in a move that drew controversy as well as speculation that Cortines, 78, was eying the door to make his exit from the troubled district.

Yesterday's threat to leave the post early came in a letter Cortines submitted to the school board following a decision they made to restore plant workers to positions at area elementary schools. Cortines opposed the plan, citing the LAUSD's crippled budget, and lamented that no one on the board discussed their plans to draft a resolution to give those employees their jobs back.

By later Friday, however, Cortines rescinded his resignation, and Board President Monica Garcia said she'd talked with him, and he said he would stay on as planned. Cortines' exact departure date remains unspecified.