By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published Sep 30, 2014 at 7:25 PM

In a special board meeting Tuesday night, the MPS Board of School Directors voted to hire acting superintendent Dr. Darienne Driver as the permanent superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools.

Driver, who was named acting superintendent in June after having served as the district's chief innovation officer, will take the post on Wednesday, Oct. 1 and is expected to sign a new contact for the position tonight.

The motion, which passed unanimously, was made by director Meagan Holman and was quickly seconded by multiple colleagues. Another motion passed calling off the search for a permanent replacement for Dr. Gregory Thornton, who left June 30 to assume the role of CEO of Baltimore City Schools.

Afterward, board members sounded positively giddy.

"This feels good," Holman said.

Driver is the first woman in MPS history to hold the position of superintendent.

Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.

He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.

With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.

He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.

In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.

He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.