ALASKA — Kenneth Burnley, who served as superintendent of Colorado Springs’ largest school district for 13 years and was named national superintendent of the year in 1993 by a national organization of school administrators, has died in Alaska. He was 69.
Burnley left Colorado Springs School District 11 in 2000 to take the top job for the Detroit Public Schools. The native of Detroit held that job five years before taking the helm of a district in Fairbanks, Alaska.
At the time of his death, Burnley was heading a 17,000-student district north of Anchorage.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that Burnley had complications after undergoing double knee-replacement surgery and died at Alaska Regional Medical Center in Anchorage.
Burnley became superintendent of Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in July 2010.
A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Friday at Teeland Middle School near Wasilla, Alaska.
