Phillips, 46, a former School District of Lancaster superintendent, announced her resignation as state Education Secretary Monday evening, the same day she took a job as superintendent of the Portland, Ore. School District.

Phillips did not return a call placed this morning to her press office in Harrisburg.

The Portland Board of Education voted unanimously to hire Phillips Monday to lead the 11,500-student urban school district.

She is a "visionary leader who has the ability to bridge us across racial, social and economic divides and raise student achievement,'' Portland board co-chairman Lolenzo Poe told the Portland Oregonian newspaper.

High-priced offers from other places, the yearn to get back to schools and kids, and the continuing controversy in Lancaster over the hiring of consultants were given as possible reasons for her departure by people here who have known or worked with her.

Phillips was hired by Portland under a three-year contract at $203,000 per year, significantly more than the $115,000 she earned annually while in Lancaster and the $150,000 annual salary earned by her predecessor in the Portland district.

"We're certainly sad to see her go,'' said Gov. Ed Rendell's press secretary, Kate Philips. "We were aware she was being heavily pursued by several school districts.

Philips said the governor was not expressing regret over his education secretary's departure, only pride in what she has accomplished after only a year on the job.

"Secretary Phillips has been a key member of the governor's cabinet and top team as we fought to get new education funding in Pennsylvania and move through a difficult year,'' said Philips.

Political analyst G. Terry Madonna said he didn't read any political signals into Phillips' leaving.

"At times, you have to take what people say at face value,'' said Madonna. "Maybe she got a more inviting opportunity.'' Madonna, who said he has known every education secretary in the past 20 or more years, said it isn't that common for a cabinet member, particularly an education secretary, to leave after only a year.

"However if you're a hands-on person and you want to be involved in the day-to-day running of a district than running this huge bureaucracy might not be for you,'' he said.

Madonna said he didn't believe the internal report released by School District of Lancaster investigators which criticized the management of grant money for consultants while Phillips was superintendent or the ongoing investigations by the state Auditor General's office and the FBI into the district had anything to do with Phillips career move.

"It's not like you're going to escape investigations whether you're in Pennsylvania or Oregon,'' Madonna said.

"The stories about your involvement are going to follow you wherever you go,'' Madonna added. "If you have a problem, it's not going to go away by moving away.'' Three investigations were launched after questions surfaced over the consultant hiring practices of Phillips' successor, Ricardo Curry.

Curry abruptly resigned Jan. 26 after reportedly admitting to the school board he hired his future wife, her brother and his sister as paid consultants.

Internal investigators have not been able to substantiate that those consultants did any of the work for which they were paid.

The internal investigation, released March 15, also criticized the hiring, tracking and payment of consultants while Phillips headed the district, from 1998 to 2003, and after she left.

"Overall, we found the procedures followed by the district to retain and pay the educational consultants to be inadequate,'' the report concluded.

"...the breakdown in controls would certainly allow for instances of impropriety or misappropriation during this time frame (July 1998 through the present.),'' the report read.

At least one of Phillips' most vocal critics in Lancaster, Anna Smith, thought the investigations could have been part of the reason Phillips is leaving Harrisburg.

"I think there are two reasons she left,'' said Smith, a city parent. "She wasn't getting her way in Harrisburg and she couldn't stand the pressure of the investigations.'' Smith was called and interviewed by an Oregonian reporter Monday night on Phillip's tenure in the city district.

"I was honest with her,'' said Smith. "The first year we had a lot of faith in her, but as she started to bring her people in, a lot of good principals were shoved out.'' Smith said there are widely varying opinions on the subject of test scores within the district.

Smith acknowledged that Phillips' tenure saw an increase, often dramatic, in the test scores of students on state standardized tests.

"But look at the test scores,'' said Smith. "Many schools here are still failing.

"She (Phillips) started out very well liked, very positive, very much in the public eye,'' Smith said. "But Vicki could never handle criticism well.'' School board member Michael Winterstein, who served with Phillips and helped hire Curry as her successor, agreed with Smith that Phillips often dismissed criticism rather than confront it.

He theorized that it could be the reason the public furor over her hiring practices had not died down.

"Vicki had a hard time accepting criticism,'' said Winterstein. "She was always putting a positive spin on it which made it hard sometimes to know if you were having an honest conversation with her.

"I think it's difficult to find a leader who will set their ego aside and accept the fact they might have screwed up in an area,'' he said. "I think that attitude of "I did nothing wrong' has kept up all the negative opinions of her.'' But Dan Desmond, a member of the school board that hired Phillips, said she was achieving all the goals and objectives to which the board was holding her accountable.

"We were specifically telling her to raise test scores, not taxes and not to hire employees in the central office,'' said Desmond.

"So she brought in all kinds of very highly skilled people on a temporary basis that did not come with benefits or long-term pensions,'' Desmond said.

"Vicki Phillips' principal responsibility was to lead the reform,'' said Desmond. "You would hope your superintendent wouldn't be in the back office making sure the paperwork was done.'' Desmond said: "Vicki is a person of the highest expectations. She's gung-ho and enthusiastic and pursued excellence. There may have been people who exploited that.''