AUGUSTA, Maine — It's been nearly a year since the Maine Department of Education has had a leader who didn't have the words "Acting Commissioner" in their job title.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage announced late Friday that Dr. William Beardsley would become the state's latest acting education chief.
Appointing acting leaders allows LePage to have someone he wants in the top job, for six months at a time, without having to go through a confirmation battle in the Legislature.
Beardsley served previously in the LePage administration, as head of the Maine Department of Conservation. On his first day in his new position, Beardsley describes how he came to oversee the state's more than 600 public schools.
"The governor's office called me and asked me if I would be willing to serve in an acting capacity," he says.
In Beardsley, the department gets a leader who was president of Husson University for 22 years and continues to serve on both the state Board of Education and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Council.
In his chat with the governor's staff, Beardsley says the possibility of a permanent appointment never came up.
"I would hope that the governor continues to seek how best to put in somebody permanently," he says.
It's been almost a year since the education department had such a leader. Last November, health problems forced Jim Rier, who worked at the agency for 11 years, to leave his position as commissioner.
His successor, acting commissioner Tom Desjardin, was forced to take his own medical leave from the post in September, after falling in his barn and breaking his back.
"It would be much better for the institution, and the program as a whole, to have someone in there full time," says Republican state Sen. Brian Langley, who co-chairs the Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.
In the year since Rier left the department, relations between LePage and state lawmakers have deteriorated.
The governor and his supporters, frustrated over a lack of action on priorities such as tax and welfare reform, are now trying to bypass the gridlock and take their case directly to the voters. Appointing another temporary education chief may be attractive to LePage, as it allows him to avoid a confirmation battle in the Legislature.
Langley says he's confident the members of his committee would put politics aside and give any permanent candidate a fair hearing.
"They take their job seriously and they're very professional at it," he says. "And would give a fair view and really look at their credentials and ask tough questions."
A spokesperson for LePage says he will make a nomination when he "deems it appropriate."
In the meantime, the union representing Maine's classroom teachers says it stands ready to work with Beardsley, though it would rather have a permanent commissioner on board.
"What MEA is hoping is that this will be a chance for us to work more collaboratively with the Department of Education," says Lois Kilbey-Chesley, president of the Maine Education Association. "We look forward to being able to work with Dr. Beardsley on all the things that effect our students."
One of the things that effects public school teachers and students the most are the annual high-stakes tests that happen every spring. Maine is in the process of choosing yet another test vendor, after dumping the Smarter Balanced Assessment.
It's just one of the major issues Beardsley will need to get up to speed on in his new position.