Carranza deputy pick comes with a bit of baggage

Rookie city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, who hails from Arizona and previously worked in California and Texas, has tapped his first out-of-town staffer for a senior role overseeing family engagement and communications for the public schools.

Hydra Mendoza, 53, of San Francisco, will start her $220,000 job as deputy chancellor in October — and she brings some baggage to the position.

Mendoza most recently served as president of the San Francisco Board of Education and deputy chief of staff for education and equity to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who died in December.

The veteran educator worked in senior roles in San Francisco schools for more than a decade, inluding the time while Carranza erved as superinendent of the San Francisco Unified chool District. But Mendoza (inet) generated controversy in San Francisco by simultaneously serving as an elected school board member and a city education staffer. That unusual arrangement began in 2005 and continued until she left the board in July.

As a board member, Mendoza was charged with representing the wishes of parents, but critics lamented that she was simultaneously receiving a paycheck from the mayor.