DH story on Fandiño's stepping down as LEA President

As usual, it was a good story. There was one thing that caught my eye:

She slammed the district’s ability-grouping strategy it calls the Student Achievement System, saying she removed her own daughter to keep her with her peers through graduation.

The implication here is that Fandiño supports social promotion. I'm a little surprised by that, actually.

Social promotion - promoting students from one grade to the next, usually in grades 1-8, almost regardless of achievement, in order for them to remain with the same group of students - has academic consequences. However, I think it also has social benefits. For the latter reason, I am a tiny bit wary of ending it as a practice (but only a tiny bit). However, I am surprised Fandiño seems to support social promotion at all. Maybe I'm wrong, and am reading too much into this paragraph. However, I doubt it.

Pioneer School teacher Sabrina Wood is scheduled to become the next LEA President. I know Sabrina Wood's reputation, and it's a great one. I will be surprised if Wood does not put forth significant effort towards consensus-building and increasing communication. It will be interesting to see how the district responds to someone else in the position besides Fandiño.