The Boston Public School Committee is set to vote Wednesday on a new superintendent, marking the end of nearly a year-long process. Following a series of private and public interviews, the job — one of the most difficult and most important in the city — will be offered to one of three finalists. WGBH’s Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu spoke with Boston City Councilor-At-Large Annissa Essaibi George about the process and the finalists. Essaibi George is a former teacher and chairs the council’s education committee. The interview below has been edited for clarity.
Joe Mathieu: We were talking about this a year ago when the Acting Superintendent Laura Perille was appointed. And so here we are facing a final decision. Three candidates, one has local ties. You’ve expressed a desire that there was a candidate with deeper roots here in Boston, with more direct ties to the city. How do you feel about these three?
Councilor Annissa Essaibi George: I absolutely have. In an ideal world for me and when we spoke about this last year, I talked about the importance of having a teacher in that role, someone who’s spent a significant amount of time in a classroom, preferably in Boston. And those Boston roots we know are so important, because Boston is a place that’s sometimes difficult to get to know. I will say off the bat, we have, I think, three very highly qualified candidates. I was not a part of the search committee, so I’m not sure what the pool looked like.