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Cherry Creek school board names internal candidate as superintendent finalist

Chris Smith is currently the district’s chief of staff

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Cherry Creek School District
Chris Smith

The Cherry Creek School board on Wednesday chose an internal candidate — Chief of Staff Chris Smith — as the sole finalist for the 54,000-student district’s superintendent job.

Cherry Creek is the first of four large Denver metro districts to announce a finalist in the search for a new superintendent. Denver, Jeffco, and Douglas County are also looking for new leaders.

Cherry Creek’s current superintendent, Scott Siegfried, announced in January he would retire at the end of the school year. Jeffco’s former superintendent, Jason Glass, left his job last summer and Douglas County’s former superintendent, Thomas Tucker, left his job last fall, and both now work for the Kentucky Department of Education. Susana Cordova, Denver’s former superintendent, left Colorado’s largest district late last fall for a new job in Texas.

The Cherry Creek school board selected Smith unanimously from a pool of two internal candidates. The other candidate was Jennifer Perry, the district’s assistant superintendent, according to a letter from school board President Karen Fisher.

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Chalkbeat Colorado is a nonprofit news organization covering education issues. For more, visit co.chalkbeat.org.