After a months-long search, Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced Lewis Ferebee, the former superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, as her pick for the new D.C. Public Schools chancellor.  But this isn’t the end of the process—the D.C. Council still has to sign off before Bowser’s nominee can start the job on a permanent basis.

That confirmation may end up being somewhat delayed. Councilmember David Grosso, chair of the D.C. Council’s education committee (and the person in charge of spearheading Ferebee’s confirmation), appears less than enthusiastic about the pick, and on Monday released a statement saying that he does not plan to rush the the process. Grosso also praised interim DCPS Chancellor Amanda Alexander highly in his statement. Alexander threw her hat in the ring for the position earlier this year, and was a finalist. She had a long history teaching and living in the District.

“Over the past few months, I have had the great pleasure of working closely with interim Chancellor Amanda Alexander as she has steered D.C. Public Schools through a period of intense public scrutiny,” Grosso’s statement reads. “Dr. Alexander has a storied career at DCPS, first as an elementary teacher, then principal, instructional superintendent, chief of elementary schools, and now interim chancellor. This dedication to our schools deserves our highest appreciation I want to express my profound gratitude for her dedication and service.”

Grosso reserves that enthusiasm for Alexander, noting that Ferebee is coming to the position from outside of D.C., and says that he does not plan to rush the council’s confirmation of Ferebee’s nomination.

“In Mr. Ferebee, the mayor has chosen to nominate an individual from outside of the District of Columbia. The vetting of such a candidate should not be taken lightly or hastily. Due to the late nature of this nomination in the legislative process, the Committee on Education will not schedule public engagement sessions this month and has no plans to move it through the Council before the end of this Council Period,” he says.

Grosso says he will hold two public engagement sessions in January, one in Ward 1 and one in Ward 7, to discuss Ferebee’s nomination. According to the mayor’s timeline, Ferebee is set to begin in his new position on January 31, 2018. But Ferebee’s nomination must be confirmed by the D.C. Council before he can begin in his position on a permanent basis—if the Council does not confirm him by January 31, he will serve as the “acting” chancellor until his confirmation.

Ferebee will earn $280,000 as the chancellor. In Indianapolis, he helped create “innovation schools,” which are essentially public schools managed by charter groups. The results of this experiment aren’t conclusive yet, but according to one local non-profit CEO who worked closely with him: “[Ferebee] is leaving a legacy where schools … have shown tremendous progress.”

Grosso declined to comment about Ferebee beyond the statement his office released.