Schools
Atlanta School Board Names Sole Finalist For Superintendent
Spelman alum Lisa Herring was tapped Tuesday as the lone finalist to be superintendent of Atlanta's public schools.
ATLANTA, GA — The superintendent of Birmingham, Alabama’s schools is Atlanta’s pick to be its next school superintendent.
Spelman College graduate Lisa Herring was announced Tuesday by the Atlanta Board of Education as its sole finalist for the job. The Macon native is finishing her third year as superintendent in Birmingham, a school system similar to Atlanta’s but roughly half its size.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Herring competed with 84 other candidates and went through four rounds of interviews before the board chose her for the job.
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Herring, a native of Macon, Georgia, previously had held administrative positions in Louisville, Kentucky, and Charleston, South Carolina, before being hired as Birmingham’s superintendent. According to her LinkedIn profile, she worked in the DeKalb County School District from 1999 to 2007. She also taught middle school in Bibb County.
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While in Birmingham, Herring managed to improve her district’s grade by the Alabama Department of Education from F to C. She also helped it regain full accreditation in 2018 after being placed on probation five years before, according to AL.com.
“My calling is truly to serve all people regardless of their background or influence and it would be an honor to serve the people of Atlanta,” Herring said in a statement issued Tuesday by the Atlanta Board of Education on its website.
The announcement comes slightly ahead of a timeline previously announced by the board, which anticipated the announcement of its finalist in May. By Georgia law, the board must wait at least 14 days after the announcement before hiring Herring to give the public a chance to learn about her. In its statement, the board said it may extend that time and conduct meetings by video because of the coronavirus pandemic.
If hired, Herring will replace Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, whose term ends on June 30. In 2019, the board voted not to renew her contract.
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