Lowell superintendent one of three finalists for education commissioner

(Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

Baehr answered questions at a news conference last year.

By Globe Staff

The superintendent of schools in Lowell is one of three finalists in the running to be the next state education commissioner.

Karla Brooks Baehr joins Mitchell Dan Chester, an education official from Ohio, and Richard Laine, director of education programs for a national foundation. The finalists were selected from a pool of 16 people.

Board of Education Chairman Paul Reville said the finalists were "outstanding," with "substantial experience in education leadership."

"The board will have the difficult but enviable task of choosing from among these three exceptional but quite different leaders," he said in a statement.

Baehr has been superintendent in Lowell, the state's fourth largest city, since 2000.

Chester is a top official in the Ohio Department of Education. Laine works at the Wallace Foundation, which seeks to support and share effective ideas and practices to improve education.

The board is expected to name the new commissioner no later than its Jan. 22 meeting.

David Driscoll, the former commissioner, retired in August. He had held the post for eight years.

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