The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to give Ramon Cortines a second try as superintendent, giving him a three-year contract to take over from David Brewer at the beginning of next year.

The appointment of Brewer’s senior deputy had been anticipated since school board members voted last week to buy out Brewer midway through his four-year contract.

Cortines, 76, previously served a brief stint as superintendent at the Los Angeled district in 2000 and also headed districts in New York and San Francisco. Brewer’s critics, including many in the business community, had been disappointed with the slow pace of efforts to turn around the nation’s second largest school district.

In an unusual move last week, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce publically supported Cortines as Brewer’s successor, and in a statement today applauded his appointment.

“His qualifications will allow the district to immediately continue in our momentum to reform our schools, improve graduation rates and develop the future workforce,” the chamber said in the statement, which called on the board to establish new benchmarks and timeframes to measure Cortines’ performance.