It’s an important week for the Dallas County School System. Monday, the board will hopefully break their deadlock and select a new superintendent and then Wednesday, the school board will auction off one of their schools.

In each case, the future of the school system will be clearly determined.

With shifting and dwindling population centers in parts of the county, the school board has had to make tough choices to close two schools in two consecutive years; Shiloh Elementary last year and Five Points Elementary the year before.

It has been understandably difficult for the system to place all of its focus on the educational standards and solutions to educational challenges within the system because of financial struggles and decreasing school populations.

Last year, the system was able to blitz through a sales tax increase with the help of the Dallas County Commission that hopefully stabilized the system’s financial foundation, but now, the system must find a way to fix the educational standards in some schools, while at the same time trying to find a way to solidify each of the remaining schools in its system.

And, all of this must now be done under the direction of a new superintendent that has yet to be named.

We can imagine the pressure board members must find themselves under when they vote Monday for the next superintendent. Hopefully, each of the board members has the strength to cast a vote and select the system’s next leader.