Kimberly Lewis, who has monitored special education in Baltimore for the Maryland State Department of Education, is now going to be in charge of it. Last night, she was named the city school system's executive director of special education, replacing the retiring Idalyn Hauss.

Following the board vote to hire Lewis, Dr. Alonso thanked her for accepting what he called "an impossible job" (and what he has said in the past is a more difficult job than his own). The head of special ed in the city has many masters. A federal court's special master oversees a decades-old lawsuit. Nancy Grasmick and her team, co-defendants in the suit, technically still have power from the court to run special ed in the city. They still have special ed managers working out of North Avenue. Lawyers representing the students who sued the system in 1984 are also watching. And of course, the person in the hot seat must report to Alonso, who, as a longtime special education teacher, has an idea or two himself about how to serve students with disabilities. "She knows it is an impossible job," Alonso said of Lewis, "but she thinks it is do-able."

In other personnel moves last night: Christopher Maher, who was running the advocacy group Supporting Public Schools of Choice, was named coordinator of secondary charter schools. The system has a new budget director: Whitney Tantleff, the outgoing finance director of ConAgra Foods. And Reginald Lewis High, the school that made national headlines last academic year for that infamous cell phone video, has a new principal: Sylvia Hall, its former academic dean.