By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – By a seven to nothing vote Friday, the St. Louis School board named Creg Williams as the district's next superintendent.
Williams comes from the Philadelphia school district, where he's been deputy chief academic officer since 2002.
In that position, he oversees more than 100 schools and a $500 million budget. But of the four finalists for the St. Louis job, he was the only one who's never held the title of superintendent.
Still, Williams says his job in Philadelphia is similar to what he'll face here.
"In that responsibility I'm in charge of the budgeting, I'm in charge of the day-to-day processes and so that makes me their superintendent," he said.
Williams says his first orders of business are academic and fiscal reform.
The vote to hire him was unanimous, something unusual for the often fractious St. Louis school board.
Member Veronica O'Brien credits a well-run hiring process.
"We followed the process that the search team gave us, and when we follow the process that's given to us with good leadership then I think we found that we had more in common as a board than we didn't have in common when it came to picking a superintendent," O'Brien said.
School board president Darnetta Clinkscale says Williams' contract should be finalized in about a week.