PROVIDENCE — Providence has a new superintendent of schools, Thomas M. Brady, a retired Army colonel who quotes ancient Chinese philosophers and launched a $4.5-billion overhaul of public school buildings in Washington, D.C.

Flanked by members of the School Board, Mayor David N. Cicilline announced the hiring of the new superintendent yesterday afternoon, one week after Supt. Donnie Evans surprised observers with his letter of resignation, which takes effect in September.

Brady, 57, is interim superintendent of the 173,000-student Philadelphia school district, the eighth-largest in the nation. He came to Philadelphia in March from Washington, D.C., where he was the school system’s chief operating officer. His last post in his 25-year Army career was as commander of Fort Belvoir, Va., from 1995 to 97, a position he said was akin to running a midsize city.

Cicilline said Brady’s strong leadership skills are a perfect fit for the Providence district, which has been racked by what some have called a leadership crisis. Two weeks ago, the Providence Teachers Union overwhelmingly approved a vote of no confidence in Evans, whose leadership has been assailed since a December snowstorm left nearly 100 students stranded on school buses for hours.

Yesterday, Cicilline explained how a new superintendent was selected just days after Evans announced his resignation.

Over the past few weeks, the mayor has had a number of frank conversations with Evans in which the superintendent supposedly expressed his frustration with the way things were going in Providence.

Cicilline said he had to prepare for two possibilities: that Evans would step down or that the School Board would choose not to renew his contract. The district, he said, couldn’t afford another protracted superintendent search. The school system needed a strong leader and it needed one right away.

In late January, the mayor approached the Broad Center, a nationally recognized education leadership program, and asked it to recommend a candidate. Brady was the organization’s top choice.

In 2004, Brady was selected to participate in the highly selective Broad Urban Superintendent’s Academy, which trains people to become school leaders.

“In the over 100 graduates we have seen to date,” said Timothy Quinn, managing director of the Broad Superintendents Academy, “I would comfortably place Tom Brady in the top 10 percent in terms of his overall capacity to provide outstanding leadership for a large urban school district.”

Once Evans announced his resignation, Cicilline moved quickly, inviting Brady to meet with members of the School Board last week. The School Board, meeting in executive session after Monday’s meeting, voted unanimously to appoint Brady.

School Board President Mary McClure, who professed her support of Evans as late as January, said Cicilline approached the School Board with Brady’s name, but denied that the board had been pressured into hiring Brady.

State Education Commissioner Peter McWalters, who met with Brady last week, said it is not uncommon for large districts to ask education think tanks for help because the traditional national search, while much more open, is too slow and unwieldy.

As Cicilline put it, the School Board had to act immediately or else Brady would have been snapped up by another district.

But the selection process came under fire from Steve Smith, the teachers union president.

“I want to know when the search began and who was on the search committee,” he said yesterday. “My understanding was that there was going to be a search for a new superintendent. There was no process. The teachers, administrators and staff deserved better.”

Yesterday, in an interview with The Journal, Brady was unabashed in his patriotism and his commitment to public service. While stationed in Germany, he visited a divided Berlin and was struck by the two cities: one prosperous and democratic, the other stark and damaged. When he saw the American flag upon his return to West Berlin, he said he felt proud to belong to an organization that stood for democratic values.

“The two most important things are our national defense and K-12 education,” he said.

Born in New York City, Brady is the son of a city police officer and grew up in Queens and Long Island, attending parochial schools.

In a move rare for superintendents, he began his career in education as president of a high school parent-teacher association in Fairfax, Va., during the late 1990s. When a leadership position opened, he became the district’s chief operating officer, where he oversaw the opening of four elementary schools in one year.

In 2004, he became the chief operating officer of the District of Columbia public schools, where he helped usher in a $4.5-billion overhaul of the city’s aging school buildings. In one year, the district closed 11 schools and Brady was in front of the public every night, explaining why their school had to go.

Brady sold the plan not by telling parents that it would save money, but by saying that their children would get a much better school. Your child, he said, will get an arts program, smaller classrooms and an assistant principal.

Brady described his leadership style as collaborative, not dictatorial. He likes to quote Lao Tzu, a 4th century B.C. Chinese philosopher, who said the most effective leaders are the ones who say little and when the work is done, his people say, “We did it ourselves.”

When he was appointed superintendent 2½ years ago, Evans said Providence would be the last stop in his career. Brady didn’t promise to retire from Providence, but he did say that he’s here for the long haul.

“I don’t want to be the chancellor of Washington, D.C., or New York City,” he said. “Continuity is very important.”

Providence has been roiled by a constant turnover in leadership, with three superintendents sweeping through the district in the past eight years. Two of them, Diana Lam and Melody Johnson, left for bigger opportunities in New York City and Houston, respectively.

Brady had initially expressed an interest in the CEO job in Philadelphia but did not apply. Last week, the district hired Arlene Ackerman to lead the school system. Brady became interim chief in Philadelphia over the summer after Paul Vallas left to become superintendent of the New Orleans school district.

When Brady takes over the Providence post on July 14, he will be confronted with some formidable challenges: The district is struggling with a $9.7-million budget shortfall at a time when the General Assembly and Governor Carcieri have indicated that there will be no additional school aid this year.

Compounding the financial situation, the district has been placed in corrective action by McWalters because a large number of the city’s 50-plus schools are chronically low-performing.

The new superintendent will also step into a climate of distrust. Teachers are frustrated by continued budget cuts and the failure to secure a new contract. And the City Council and the School Board have been sniping at each other since the Dec. 13 snowstorm, which prompted some council members to call for Evans’ resignation.

Yesterday, Brady said his first move will be to start building relationships with parents, local universities and business leaders.

“The mayor gets it here,” he said. “But there are no easy answers. I’m not the messiah of K-12 education.”

The new superintendent will earn $190,000 in addition to $20,000 in deferred compensation and $34,000 based on his performance. A total of $54,000 will be paid by the Carter Charitable Trust, a local nonprofit foundation.

Brady is married to Lisa Brady, a labor and delivery nurse, and has five grown children and five grandchildren. His daughter has vowed to follow in her father’s footsteps: she wants to become a superintendent of schools one day.

lborg@projo.com