At today’s jam packed news conference to announce the resignation of Baltimore City Schools CEO Andrés Alonso, even high-profile, plugged-in players in the city’s education world said the announcement caught them unawares.

“I was very surprised,” said Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teachers’ Union, after the media event at city schools headquarters on North Avenue. “I thought we had everything arranged for a meeting, he and I, in October. I’m kind of surprised by the timing.”

Alonso, whose eyes welled with tears shortly after taking the microphone, seemed himself to be unprepared for the news he was delivering.

“When I first walked into a school in Newark, N.J., there was a banner in the back of the central office that said ‘Kids come as is,’” he said, pausing to compose himself. “They’re not made to order.”

He meant, children come with problems and it’s the educator’s job to fix them – an epiphany from earlier in his career that he described to reporters six years ago when he first took the helm of Baltimore City Public Schools.

“If I Remained I Would Have Personal Regrets”

Today the 55-year-old Alonso was answering questions about why he would leave two years into his second four-year-contract, just after the school system and its advocates won approval in Annapolis for a comprehensive $1 billion plan to renovate or replace dilapidated schools.

The primary reason he gave was the demands of dealing with the needs of ailing parents who are in their 80s and live in Weehawken, N.J.

“I have no regrets,” he said. “I feel if I remained I would have personal regrets I would never be able to live with. So, it’s the right time.”

Speaking to The Brew after the news conference, he elaborated.  “It’s hard to do the work and commute to New Jersey every weekend,” he said. Alonso confirmed that he’s had to get up and step away from meetings of the school board in order to take phone calls involving his parents.

But a radio reporter at the news conference asked Alonso why, when she approached him two weeks earlier “when rumors were flying” he had assured her he “was committed to the District” and would stay. “What happened,” she asked, “between two-weeks-ago and now?”

Asked later by The Brew to clarify his answer – and if perhaps his parents’ health condition had changed over two weeks – Alonso said “no.”

“What happened over two weeks was I intended to give the board the opportunity to settle on the transition,” he said.

Cheating and Other “Challenges”

Alonso’s departure follows a huge victory for city schools advocates, approval by the state legislature in Annapolis of a massive plan to renovate or replace aging school buildings.

As the leader of a district beset with failing schools, high drop-out rates and institutional inertia and despair, he was applauded for attempting bold measures like the pay for performance teachers’ contract, encouraging more school “choice,” giving principals control over their budgets and other new ideas.

Improving test scores, graduation rates and other measures  suggested something was working.

But after Alonso renewed his contract, the district seemed to have reached a plateau. The test scores stopped rising, investigation of a cheating scandal was bobbled by district leaders and an audit of the district’s spending showed lax oversight and  financial mismanagement.

The bad headlines included school system procurement cards running up $500,000 in charges, including pricey dinners with Alonso and school board members and union leaders at places like the Center Club and the Prime Rib.

Asked by a reporter if the job’s “challenges” played a part in his decision to leave, Alonso said no: “Frustrations are part of the DNA of this job…I actually love that kind of adrenaline.”

New CEO “Looking Forward, not Back”

In addition to a last official performance by the  at-times passionate Alonso, the public got a glimpse today of  the cool, collected lawyer who is taking his place and presenting herself in a new light.

“This journey started for me as a mother – my sons Nicholas and Nevan – they are my inspiration,” said Tisha Edwards, Alonso’s chief of staff and now interim city schools CEO. “It is the love that I have for them that helps me to love 85,000 other children.”

Applauding Alonso’s leadership, she promised to continue his work and said “We are not looking back, we will all charge forward.”

As for Alonso, he is returning to a familiar academic haven, Harvard University, where he will teach part-time in a program “to train the next generation of district leaders.”

In 1999, Alonso was accepted at Harvard’s Urban Superintendents Program. From there, he went to New York City, where he was promoted to deputy chancellor for teaching and learning in 2006. He was chosen to take over Baltimore’s school system the next year.

What else is in Alonso’s future?

This evening he referred to his decision as “retirement,” during remarks before a crowd of about 150 people at an event at Waverly Elementary/Middle School.

The event was a celebration, sponsored by the Baltimore Education Coalition, of passage of the school construction program, which would include a new building, gym and science labs for Waverly.

Rising to a standing ovation, Alonso applauded the construction effort and then alluded to the reasons he would be leaving it behind: “It’s the right moment for me personally and it’s the right moment for the school system.”

The crowd included members of the City Council, the city’s Annapolis delegation, activists, parents and students, as well as Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake: “We are proud of your achievements,” she said. “It’s been a pleasure to work with you over the years.”

Speaking earlier to The Brew, Alonso didn’t rule a return to a superintendent’s job at some point in the future.

“I’m sure that someday down the road I’ll jump into something like this again.”