VALLAS GOIN' SOUTH?

SCHOOL DISTRICT chief executive Paul Vallas last night confirmed to the

Daily News

that he will leave Philadelphia at the end of this school year, despite having a contract extension that could have kept him here until 2009.

Vallas' decision stunned parents and district insiders alike, coming on a day in which speculation mounted by the hour that he had been tapped to become the next leader of the Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans school district.

Sandra Dungee Glenn, a member of the School Reform Commission, and other sources said Vallas indeed had been approached about taking the job of superintendent of the New Orleans Recovery School District, created in the wake of the 2005 storm.

"It is my understanding that there are some people who are trying to court him, and I suppose he is weighing his options," Glenn said yesterday.

James Nevels, chairman of the commission, wished Vallas well and called him "an agent of change" who helped the commission implement "some of the most ambitious reforms in urban education this country has ever seen."

Nevels added: "Our priority right now is the children of Philadelphia. Our focus will be on completing the budget process, creating an immediate succession plan and preparing for a national search for our next CEO."

Vallas, 53, spent four days last week in New Orleans serving as an education consultant at the invitation of Paul G. Pastorek, Louisiana's superintendent of education. The Recovery School District is under state control.

Vallas, however, declined to speak about his New Orleans trip or the talk that he'd soon be rebuilding that district.

Instead, he said last night only that five years at the helm of the nation's eighth-largest school district was plenty, and that he, wife Sharon and their three sons would return to the family's Chicago hometown this summer.

"I think the next mayor should play a critical role in the selection of the next superintendent," Vallas said before getting into his chauffeur-driven school district car.

"This is going to be my last budget. It's five years - five years is long enough. Five years is about two years longer than most superintendents," said Vallas, who was hired by the reform commission amid much fanfare in July 2002, after receiving favorable national headlines during his six-year tenure running Chicago's public schools.

Vallas added: "We're going to leave the school district with a five-year balanced budget plan . . . What I'm going to do for the next two months is work to get the budget passed and really lay out what the district needs to do to get to the next level."

Vallas said he has found a way to balance next year's $2.18 billion budget through a combination of spending reductions and pending requests for additional city and state funding.

If the new funding does not come through, he said, more spending reductions will be made.

State law requires that the budget be passed by the end of May.

Vallas' decision to leave comes a week after the district announced that Chief Academic Officer Gregory Thornton was one of two finalists to become the next superintendent of Seattle Public Schools.

Yesterday, members of Seattle's school board were conducting interviews at Philadelphia school headquarters as part of the vetting process for Thornton, who is favored to get the job.

"Paul's been on the ground trying to change things and create opportunities for young people," said Thornton, 52. "So I know he's in a very difficult place, making a very difficult decision. And so am I."

On the potential leadership vacuum, Philadelphia Education Secretary Jacqueline Barnett said: "We are going to have to be deliberately swift in finding leadership that makes sure we are stabilized and which can build on the academic success."

Greg Wade, president of the citywide Philadelphia Home and School Council, said Vallas will be remembered as someone who worked hard to fix a broken school district.

"I honestly believe the man thought he could take this school district to the next level, and I thought he could," Wade said, referring to a surprise $73 million budget deficit that surfaced late last year. "But his hands were tied by the School Reform Commission, by the people the commission put in place, and they basically screwed him."

Shortly after the deficit was found, commission member James Gallagher called for Vallas to resign. Even earlier, last summer, Gallagher was one of two SRC members who voted against awarding Vallas a contract extension.

The extension was awarded on a 3-2 vote.

"Although we've disagreed on certain issues, I wish him well," Gallagher said yesterday.

Louisiana officials would not confirm that Vallas was their man for New Orleans.

The current superintendent of Recovery School District, Robin Jarvis, has not yet decided whether to stay or leave, forstalling the launching of a superintendent search, said Meg Casper, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Education.

After Katrina, New Orleans schools, which had a dismal record before the storm, were broken up into three systems.

Five schools are run by the local school board, 31 are run by charter-school organizations and 20 are run by the state's Recovery School District, which has about 27,000 students. *

Staff writer Gloria Campisi contributed to this report.