Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius has been named one of two finalists for the superintendency of Minneapolis Public Schools.
A selection committee, which made the announcement Friday, said Ed Graff, the superintendent of schools in Anchorage, Alaska, was the second finalist.
The Minneapolis school board will interview Cassellius and Graff on Tuesday. After school visits and a round of public comment on May 23, the board will meet May 27 to vote and approve a contract for a new superintendent.
Cassellius, 48, was superintendent of the East Metro Integration District, serving St. Paul and several suburban districts, when Gov. Mark Dayton appointed her education commissioner in 2010. She previously was an associate superintendent in the Minneapolis district.
She has said the Minneapois school board’s search firm asked her to apply for the superintendency.
The district has been without a permanent superintendent since Bernadeia Johnson resigned in December 2014. The school board tabbed Sergio Paez a year later but broke off contract talks over concerns about the treatment of special education students at his former school district in Holyoke, Mass.