The Boston schools superintendent’s license has lapsed. Here’s what that means.

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius’s state license to serve as the district’s administrator expired late last month.

Cassellius apologized for the lapse to the School Committee on Wednesday, soon after The Boston Globe broke the story.

A Globe review found that Cassellius, who has helmed the district since she moved to Boston from Minnesota in 2019, never took the Massachusetts certification exams — a violation of her contract. She appears to be the sole superintendent in the commonwealth who is currently unlicensed, according to the newspaper.

Cassellius told the committee the issue stemmed from a “misunderstanding between me and my team” over extensions of emergency licenses amid the COVID-19 health crisis, The Boston Herald reports.

She also told the Globe she has “been busy handling a pandemic.”

“It’s a five-hour test, by the way,” she told the newspaper, later adding, “I’ll do the task, it’s required, it’s law. I respect that.”

Cassellius was informed her license expired by Massachusetts Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley, who called her Monday night with the news, she said.

What exactly the license expiration means for Casselius’s authority in leading the district was not entirely clear.

Asked about the issue by School Committee member Ernani DeAraujo, Cassellius said Riley is “looking at that with his lawyers, and we are with ours as well.”

“And so I will come back to the School Committee about that,” she said.

According to the Globe, however, officials said Boston Public Schools will need to ask for a temporary waiver from the state for the lacking license, and Cassellius must still take and pass the needed tests.

Cassellius was initially given a two-year period to take the MTEL communication and literacy skills exams, the newspaper reported. The deadline for taking the exams and obtaining a new license was last Saturday.

Teachers and administrators are typically given a year to take the tests, but Cassellius was awarded more time due to the pandemic and the state pushing back the expiration dates.

Cassellius was reminded two times in the last six months by the state that she still needed to take the exams.

“There’s just a lot going on that … I’ve just been busy with,” she said. “This hasn’t been the number one task that I’ve had to get done. It’s not that I won’t get it done, I will.”

She told the committee on Wednesday that she is scheduled to take the tests on Aug. 14.

“I just don’t need anything hanging over my head,” she told the Globe. “I don’t need anyone questioning my competency or trying to, you know, cause muck in the mayoral race. … I want the confidence to be in me and my leadership in the district so that we can move forward and I’m not a distraction.”

The School Committee voted 4-1 last month to extend Cassellius’s contract with the district.

DeAraujo, the only member to vote against the extension, said Wednesday the license lapse is “a very significant disclosure,” according to the Herald.

“That’s pretty fundamental to have missed that,” he said.

Committee Chair Jeri Robinson pointed to the district’s human resources office for not notifying the board with any potential issues, the Globe reports.

“The licensure of all staff is the responsibility of the human resources department,” she said. “It was our assumption that it was being taken care of by them. They should have alerted us to an issue.”

“This is a lesson learned,” Robinson said. “We should have a checklist that says all of these things are in place and we did not.”

Committee member Michael O’Neill said other senior staffers have the proper licenses to keep working in the interim, according to the Herald.

“It is an unnecessary distraction, unfortunately,” he said. “It’s something that could have been corrected ahead of time with proper information.”

Want to leave a comment?

Create an Account Or sign in to your account

To comment, please create a screen name in your profile

To comment, please verify your email address

Conversation

This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com