Julia Keleher鈥檚 relationship with Puerto Rico鈥檚 education department has shifted for this second time this week.
and shifting into the role of paid department adviser, Keleher is no longer advising the department. She confirmed the end of her brand-new job in a message Thursday, the same day that news reports from the island referred to a legislative inquiry into
Keleher had led the department, which oversees public schools that educate more than 300,000 students in the U.S. territory, from January 2017 until Tuesday. Gov. Ricardo Rossell贸, who picked Keleher to lead the department more than two years ago, announced the same day that Eleuterio 脕lamo would be her replacement on an interim basis. 脕lamo most recently oversaw the Puerto Rico education department鈥檚 San Juan regional office.
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Keleher鈥檚 salary of $250,000 while serving as secretary had been due to carry over to her role as a department adviser on a contractual basis. According to a report in Caribbean Business, , and Rossell贸's chief of staff accepted the termination of the agreement.
After leading the island鈥檚 schools through Hurricane Maria in 2017, Keleher won both strong praise and criticism for her push to revamp the island鈥檚 schools by closing underused buildings, successfully lobbying for new policies to bolster educational choice, and trying to build stronger connections between K-12 and the island鈥檚 business community.