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Crew promised to rise to the occasion despite a challenging summer where the board came close to firing him as superintendent.

"As long as I can stay in this, my intent is to lead from a position of strength that still has 341,000 students in it," he added.

This year will have challenges, he explained, improving literacy and graduation rates, also integrating a large number of immigrant children - all of which will be done with a decreasing budget.

A candid Crew admitted the comments made against his ability to lead the district were hurtful.

"There is so much work to be done there is almost no time lamenting how bad one has been wounded," he told the crowd.

Earlier this week, Miami-Dade School Board members met to discuss firing Crew two years before his contract expires, and listened to the public for two hours, hearing people who felt they have mixed politics with the education of their children. Only a small number of people agreed with board members calling for Crew to be fired.

When board members took over the microphone, the division among the board was clear. Renier Diaz de la Portilla, considered Crew's biggest opponent on the board, demanded the school board's attorney justify claims that Crew had not been subordinate.

After listening to a point by point defense of a memo issued over the weekend, claiming there were no legal grounds to fire Crew without paying his remaining contract, Diaz de la Portilla said he respect the legal opinion but disagreed with it, prompting gasps from the audience. Diaz de la Portilla said it was time for the board to define itself by fighting the claim the district could not fire Crew without paying a $700 thousand contract fee.

Crew's job wasn't the only thing saved during the meeting. School board members also spared more than 700 jobs that had been on the chopping block.

Among those positions spared were 208 teacher and teacher's aide jobs, 435 clerical workers and counselors and 32 maintenance workers and bus drivers.