Yvonne Brandon accepted one of the toughest jobs in town when she took over earlier this year as superintendent of Richmond’s public school system. Improving urban education is one of the most complex—and persistent—challenges facing the country, and Richmond is no exception. The city’s public schools have made meaningful progress in recent years. But the remaining problems are huge.

Henrico County school officials today named Hampton School Superintendent Patrick Russo as superintendent of the 48,000-student Henrico system.

The long-running search for Richmond’s next school superintendent has reached the candidate stage. In a special meeting last night, the School Board received a list of potential new leaders. The board opened and promptly closed the meeting, citing confidential personnel matters. Tom Farrell, the Dominion Resources chief and the head of the School Board-appointed committee in charge of finding candidates, was on hand and was allowed to remain in the closed meeting. He would not comment on whether he was presenting a list of candidates, though he said this month that his committee would finish its work before today.

The New Kent County School Board is gathering input and applications to prepare for the July retirement of Superintendent J. Roy Geiger II. Geiger, 58, who began his career in New Kent as a teacher 33 years ago, has been superintendent since July 1995. School Board Chairman Joseph S. Yates said an outside consultant, Richard Hixson of Yorktown, has been hired to assist with the statewide search for a new superintendent.