Continuing churn in the top ranks of the Minneapolis public schools has led to another promotion.

Sara Paul was been elevated to the job of associate superintendent, one of four people who carry out the district's academic agenda by working directly with principals and their schools. She was appointed this week by Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson.

Paul replaces Mark Bonine, who as previously announced assumes the superintendency of Brooklyn Center schools at the end of this month. She'll continue to oversee the Office of New Schools (district-authorized charters and a self-governed school), her previous assignment, and the district's planned semi-autonomous partnership schools.

Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson is losing another of her associate superintendents, with the move by Theresa Battle back to St. Paul schools. She has overseen schools in the southwest quadrant of Minneapolis, and will be an assistant superintendent for high schools in St. Paul.

Those departures come atop the departure earlier this year of the district's second-ranking administrator, Rick Mills, who was hired to head a Florida district. He then hired Don Hall, the district's chief information officer, to be one of his deputy superintendents. Hall had only been in his Minneapolis position for a few months. Also departed is Emily Puetz, the chief academic officer, for family reasons.

So are all of these top-level departures a sign of discontent? So far, the answer seems to be no. Mills was ambitious to gain a chief's position after gaining superintendent licensing , and some at MPS won't miss him. Hall was an import here for mere months. The well-liked Bonine likewise wanted to be a superintendent, and could make a formidable candidate for that job in Minneapolis a few years from now after Johnson, who starts her second three-year term on July 1. Battle is returning to the district where she was a long-time teacher and principal.

The department that's been most affected by the revolving door is IT. The naming of David Mayor for the newly created job of chief information officer in late 2011 was short-circuited by his sudden death last August. Now Hall, his replacement, is gone after completing an ambitious technology upgrade plan. Colleen Kosloski , a longtime IT hand for the district and the interim IT chief, retires this month