Dr. Marcelo Cavazos is slated to become the next superintendent of the Arlington ISD. Cavazos, who has served as interim superintendent since June, will officially take the top post during a December 6 school board meeting.

Cavazos will continue to lead the 64,380-student district, which is 42 percent Hispanic, 26 percent Anglo and 23 percent African American under a new strategic plan which he launched as interim superintendent. The initiative is being implemented over the next few years and will be in place by 2015.

The San Benito native began his teaching career as an English teacher in the Mission Consolidated ISD in 1990. Two years later, he moved to McAllen ISD to teach English and government. He was named the secondary language arts supervisor for Mercedes ISD in 1993 and became associate advisor for San Benito Consolidated ISD in 1995. Cavazos went to work for the Texas Education Agency Department of School Finance and Support in 1998.

He joined the AISD in 1999 as associate superintendent for instruction and served as interim deputy superintendent for seven months before being named deputy superintendent in February 2009. He has previously served as a lecturer for the University of Texas at Arlington' s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Cavazos holds a bachelor' s and a master' s degree from the University of Texas -Pan American and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin

The board named Cavazos the lone finalist on November 3. State law requires school trustees to wait 21 days after announcing the finalist to make an appointment.