Detroit Schools State-Appointed Manager Plans To Stay Longer

DETROIT (AP) - A retired judge who handled Detroit's bankruptcy plans to stay at his post running the city's deeply troubled school system until January.

State-appointed emergency manager Steven Rhodes tells the Detroit Free Press he met this week with Gov. Rick Snyder and agreed to extend his contract, which was to expire Sept. 30. Detroit is to swear in a new school board in January.

Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton confirmed the meeting to The Associated Press, but says in an email a contract hasn't been signed.

Rhodes calls the board's election "the single most critical issue" the district faces this fall and says the city needs to elect "the best possible school board it can." Earlier this year, the state started moving forward on a $617 million bailout of the financially-strapped district.