Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins

TOPEKA ? Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins today announced the hiring of two deputy commissioners, including one who will lead a new division focused on innovations in public schools.

“We are not reinventing the wheel. We are just making it more efficient,” Corkins said at a news conference.

Corkins has appointed Thomas Foster as deputy commissioner for the Learning Services Division, and Larry Allen Englebrick as deputy commissioner for the School Innovation Division.

Foster has worked at the state education department since 2004 and before that served as an administrator, principal and teacher at several school districts.

Englebrick has served in various teaching and administrative functions at the Kansas City, Kan. school district. He was involved with the “First Things First” program in Kansas City, which has been recognized for raising student performance.

Both appointees hold doctorate degrees in education from Kansas University.

Corkins’ hiring must be approved by the State Board of Education, which will consider the appointees next week.

Two board members who have often been at odds with Corkins said they were skeptical of the reorganization that establishes a new division on innovation.

“I’m afraid that it will have the consequences of creating a new silo in the department at a time when we need to have all the departments talking to one another,” Bill Wagnon, a Democrat from Topeka, said.

Wagnon and board member Sue Gamble, a Republican from Shawnee, also were disturbed by the fact that Corkins announced the appointees before getting board approval.

Corkins said it was traditional for the commissioner to pick his deputies before seeking board approval.

But Gamble disagreed.

“In my 35 years of being on an elective board, I have never known an executive to take this kind of action.

“It is absolutely not standard operating procedure,” Gamble said.

Corkins said the divison on innovation would look for programs that are working in schools and see if they can be applied to other districts.

Gamble also said she had concerns about the funds needed to hire an additional deputy commissioner and realign the staff.

Corkins said the changes could be made within existing revenues in the department. He declined to release the salaries of the two new deputies, saying that information was confidential until the board approved the positions.