Whether accidental or calculated with uncommon foresight, a muscular mazel tov to the School Board for a brilliant marketing maneuver:

Appointing the popular and the capable Leslie Lockhart as interim superintendent.

She surely was the most logical antidote to heal the wounds caused by the dark, abrupt firing of Josh Arnold a month ago.

She is Ms. Wide Knowledge of the District.

She is Ms. Public Relations.

And those qualifications trump all other needs.

Whether she is a bridge to Dr. Arnold’s successor or the answer to the puzzle herself does not yet matter on this mid-summer morning.

In a media-shrunken world, personalities matter more than before. Ms. Lockhart is the answer even before the question is posed.

Two decades in the School District have allowed her to become acquainted with all who matter on each campus.

A huge scope of projects – four dozen – is on the summer calendar.

Ms. Lockhart brings a familiarity to this workload that a newcomer could not possibly master in a condensed timeframe.

Even if the School Board had stashed away a permanent replacement for Dr. Arnold, the transition would have been bumpy and slower with an accent on an extended learning process.

After slugging itself in the jaw, at least in a public relations sense, with the clunky canning of Dr. Arnold, the Board recovered masterfully by choosing Ms. Lockhart.