In the middle of the disaster and chaos, created primarily by the Superintendent and his teams, Dr. Fornero announced in late January, 2006, that he is leaving the district. Very convenient. He leaves the community, the district, and the Boar to deal with his mess and the red ink.

Traffic problems, school attendance boundaries, inability to fund the operations and maintenance of the new school will all need to be dealt with, but not by Dr. Fornero. Remember that when interviewing to get the job in Ann Arbor, he said that he wanted to stay with the Ann Arbor Public Schools until retirement.

Read what some are saying about this:

Trustee Friedman: "I am very disappointed by way he handled it; he did this behind our back, and presented it to us just last Thursday night as a done deal, and he had to know that he was doing this at a critical moment in our implementation of these initiatives in an already challenging financial environment.''

President Karen Cross: ... the board was disappointed with the timing of the move.

President of the Ann Arbor Education Association, Linda Carter: "I guess it would have been nice to have a heads up."

Chairwoman of the PTO Council, Elena Wakeman: "I had no idea. It's a total surprise to me."

Read the Ann Arbor News story about the surprise resignation.

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