Gov. John Baldacci announced today that the commissioner of the state Department of Education will leave her position at the end of the month. Susan Gendron has served as commissioner for seven years. And while it's not unusual for a cabinet member to leave office toward the end of a gubernatorial term, some education officials are disappointed that she's leaving, and that she's doing so during a tumultuous time for public education.

Sen. Carol Weston, a Montville Republican, is a member of the Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. She says she's disappointed to hear that Susan Gendron is stepping down. "She is leaving a lot of things in some turmoil and flux, so the next commissioner coming on will have a heavy load."

Weston says she's disappointed Gendron won't continue to lead the efforts to reorganize and consolidate public school systems across the state. "None of the promise that she made for school consolidation has been realized," Weston says. "There were financial issues that are bringing districts to more of a collaboration. I think that the top-down plan still has not proven to be the most successful plan."

And Weston says the Maine Department of Education has submitted weak applications for some of the federal Race to the Top education reform funds, funds that will be awarded to the states that make the best case. Weston says this is ironic, given that Gendron is leaving the department to become policy director for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a group of more than 35 states working to compete for a share of the Race to the Top funds.

"The three Race to the Top bills that we got did seem to be very weak, and yet she's going to be part of this national group and leave us to fend for ourselves with this legislation."

Weston also questions Gendron's decision to schedule knee surgery during the last week of the legislative session when her presence could have helped guide the committee through its last efforts to pass bills related to the Race to the Top funding.

But Education Committee Chair Justin Alfond says he wasn't surprised to hear that Commissioner Gendron is moving on to a national position. "Commissioner Gendron is a very strong commissioner who's definitely led many different policies during her six-plus years."

Alfond, a Portland Democrat, says Gendron has done the best job possible to lead school consolidation efforts. "This idea of consolidation really came up, from what I understand, very quickly, and so when she was going out trying to sell it and answer questions, often she was having to come up with answers that were not thought through by, I think, the department, by the governor, by the Legislature, and thus I think we got into a lot of revisions of consolidation that continued right into this session."

Still, Alfond says he has some hesitations about Gendron's departure. "I wish her well, but I also wish she could have continued through the end of the term because this next phase in consolidation really gave her, or the next interim commissioner, the authority to approve or not approve any of these flexible consolidation plans. And so I'm concerned we don't have that consistency."

The state teacher's union, the Maine Education Association, has also been supportive of Gendron. Mark Gray is MEA's director. "We were a little surprised and disappointed. She's done an outstanding job as commissioner of education and I think has served the state well and we were very disappointed to see her leave."

During Gendron's tenure, Maine has joined with three other states to administer the New England Common Assessment Program, a common assessment for reading and mathematics. She expanded Maine's laptop program to provide computers to all Maine middle school and high school students. In 2005, Gendron worked with the governor and Legislature to pass a new formula for funding education.

In a statement issued today, Gov. Baldacci congratulated Gendron on her service, saying she "has helped to build a culture in Maine that all students need to graduate ready for college, career and citizenship."

Baldacci also announced that Deputy Education Commissioner Angela Faherty will become Acting Commissioner. Commissioner Gendron could not be reached for comment by airtime.