This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Salt Lake City is welcoming a new high-ranking public official, one who will have to deal with crime, deprivation, gangs, child abuse, ethnic and gender inequality, as well as political infighting among the elite.

So welcome to the new superintendent of schools, Alexa Cunningham.

What's that? You thought this was about the appointment of Mike Brown to be Salt Lake City's new chief of police?

Well, congratulations to him, too. But Brown has been on the local force for 25 years and has been serving as the city's interim top cop for nearly a year, ever since the series of unfortunate events that led to the ouster of former Chief Chris Burbank. That dust-up, in turn, damaged the image of then-Mayor Ralph Becker and led to the election of new Mayor Jackie Biskupski over incumbent Ralph Becker.

Biskupski took the "interim" label away from Brown Tuesday, praising him as someone who will open ties to all corners of the community.

Cunningham's appointment, to replace retiring superintendent McKell Withers, was approved unanimously Monday by members of the Salt Lake City School Board.

Cunningham is being hired away from her post of superintendent of the Tolleson Union High School District in suburban Phoenix. She was seen by all members — and by many others who participated in the selection process — as having the skills necessary to surf the often rough political waves found on a sometimes contentious board, as well as between local educators and not-always-sympathetic state officials.

Meeting those challenges is crucial. And will be difficult.

Despite all the promises of private schools, charter schools, home-schooling and online learning, the vast majority of our young people will depend on the public schools to give them hope.

The fact that Superintendent Cunningham and Chief Brown received their new appointments within 24 hours of one another is unintentionally symbolic. Both face a challenge of serving a community that, while not growing as rapidly as outlying suburbs, is home to more and more people who have fled here from political or economic uncertainty, for whom English is not a first language and cultural integration is both crucial and difficult.

Both the city and the school district are working to end what's called the school-to-prison pipeline, learning to treat those who violate school rules as something other than violent criminals while still keeping peace in the classroom.

Both of the new administrators, and the agencies they head, will succeed, for fail, together.