CARY — The Wake County school board voted Tuesday to make Stephen Gainey the interim superintendent until a permanent schools chief is hired.

Gainey, the school district’s assistant superintendent for human resources, has been filling in as acting superintendent since Tony Tata was fired by the board’s Democratic majority on Sept. 25. The board asked Gainey, whose contract as acting superintendent ends Dec. 31, to stay on while they conduct a superintendent search.

“They feel he’s doing a good job,” said new school board chairman Keith Sutton. “He’s familiar with the system.”.

Sutton says he’ll appoint a school board search committee during the next seven to 10 days with the goal of having a permanent superintendent hired by July 1. Gainey has not indicated whether he’ll apply for the position.

Gainey will be paid an additional $5,750 a month in salary and travel expenses to be interim superintendent of the state’s largest school district. As the acting superintendent, he was paid an additional $3,750 a month in salary and travel expenses to go along with his $120,000 salary as assistant superintendent.

Gainey, 42, started his career in Wake in the early 1990s as a math teacher at Apex High School. He was promoted to assistant principal at Leesville Road High School in North Raleigh in 1996.

Gainey left Wake to become a principal at Turrentine Middle School in Burlington in 2001.

He was lured back to Wake in 2004 to become principal of Leesville Road High, where he was a popular school leader who frequently walked the halls and seemed to know the name of every student and parent.

Gainey became assistant superintendent for human resources in 2009.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in education leadership from East Carolina University. He holds a doctorate in education administration and supervision from N.C. State University.

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