Board members of the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to hire John Deasy as deputy superintendent yesterday, which will make him a major player in the operation of the nation's second largest public school system, and a possible successor to Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

While the Los Angeles Times touts Deasy's previous jobs with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Prince George's Public County Schools in Maryland, and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the Griffith Park Wayist reports that the new deputy superintendent found himself in the middle of two major controversies only a few years ago.

The blog writes that, in 2008, Capital News Service found “two anomalies” in Deasy's resume. One involved stating the wrong date he received a master's degree, and the other was about the listing of a faculty position in the doctoral program of Educational Leadership and Social Justice at Loyola Marymount University from 2003 to present.

According to Capital News Service, Loyola's human resources department could not find Deasy listed as a current or past faculty member.

The Griffith Park Wayist also offers up a Baltimore Sun article that goes into how Deasy was caught in another controversy in 2008: He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Louisville after completing only nine credits.

But among LAUSD board members, who are led by president Monica Garcia, it appears Deasy's completely off the hook for whatever sins he may have previously committed — with the L.A. Times completely ignoring the controversies in its coverage over the past two days.

The L.A. Times does report that the LAUSD board gave Deasy an annual salary of $275,000 — $25,000 more than his boss, Ramon Cortines.

The newspaper also makes the point that Deasy appears to be a strong contender to succeed Cortines when he is expected to retire sometime in the next two years.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

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