The vote in public was unanimous though there was clearly a split in the board when they began meetings this morning. Erwin comes from the St. Charles, Illinois school district where she presides over a 15,000 student district. She has been school superintendent in three other districts. But that's not the story today.

The story is that the state board liked Erwin's toughness, smarts and reputation for innovation then shook off, ignored, or felt comfortable with numerous problems in Erwin's past to go ahead and hire her. They apparently grilled her for most of three hours behind closed doors, presumably delving into the reasons she had problems with the past three local school boards she worked for, was accused of almost killing two previous districts and had a "typo" on the resume she submitted for the Kentucky job. And during today's board meeting, news surfaced from blogger and former school principal Richard Day, of another potential problem with Erwin's resume. She'd written that she'd given presentations at a statewide school conference in Illinois in 2004 and 2006. Day confirmed with conference officials that she hadn't been a presenter in 2006. When asked about it after today's vote, board members said they were unaware of the new questions about Erwin's resume and she said her school district had given presentations, which she signed off on, at each of those conferences.

Board member Doug Hubbard, who has been the one most critical of Erwin, was attending a National Rural Electric Coop meeting in D.C. and wasn't at the school board meeting in Bowling Green. He told me by phone late today that his fellow board members "obviously looked past her credibility problems" in voting to hire Erwin. Hubbard wouldn't say how he would have voted but added "sometimes we have to suck it up and move on".

On the political side of this decision is the fact that all of the current state school board members have been appointed or reappointed by Governor Fletcher. On one hand, it appears Fletcher kept his hands off the commissioner search and selection process. On the other hand, the lousy job by the search firm (Ray and Associates) and the fumbling by his board could reflect badly on Fletcher if he's reelected and Erwin is overly scrutinized to the point that she's driven from the job. And make no mistake, Erwin's hire is the work of board chairman Keith Travis who's championed her despite the revelations. Let's all hope is a good judge of someone who's claimed to have learned from their past mistakes. Erwin has a 4 year contract starting at $220,000.