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Mayor Vincent Gray urged the candidates running for his job to take politics out of the school boundary process.

“We will not politicize something this important,” Gray said of the school boundary and feeder pattern changes he recently accepted, adding that he welcomes any Councilmember — not just the two running for mayor — to share ideas. Both Councilmembers Muriel Bowser and David Catania, who are running for mayor, have criticized the plan.

Gray said DCPS schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson “enthusiastically signed on” to the plan. An implementation plan designed by Henderson and Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith is expected to Gray in October.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Democratic nominee for mayor Muriel Bowser said she wants to restart the process. “If you go back to the beginning of this process, the chancellor of schools was not involved in this process,” she said. “I don’t anticipate that the chancellor of schools will be involved in the boundary process moving forward.”

When asked about that stance, Gray asked, “Why would you exclude the chancellor, who is the head of our traditional public education system, from such an important process? I believe [Bowser] was the one who asked the chancellor to stay, so I don’t understand that.”

Gray said Bowser has not approached him about the boundary changes. “I see Councilmember Bowser in lots of different places,” he said. She did not approach Gray about her issues at a recent event they both attended, he said. Indeed, Gray said, no Councilmember has approached him about the school boundary issue.

“I hope that people will resist the opportunity to demagogue this issue and will actually engage in something that’s hugely important to the parents and children in this city,” Gray said, latter adding that the city needs to focus on “substantive” issues.

“We could wait another 40 years, and you’d have the same, from some of the concerns expressed about it because it’s a complex, painstaking and complicated process that never should have been permitted to go 46 years without attention,” he said.

Gray said he hasn’t decided who to vote for in November.