The Atlanta Board of Education voted Wednesday to select Illinois-based Hazard Young Attea (HYA) & Associates to lead the school district’s search for a new superintendent. It’s the same firm the board used in 2019 to choose former Superintendent Lisa Herring.
The board announced in June it did not plan to extend Herring’s contract when it was scheduled to end in June 2024. Herring, who was superintendent for three years, initially planned to consult with Atlanta Public Schools through December, but she recently accepted a position leading an organization that works with historically Black colleges and universities. She has also been serving as a strategic adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. Former APS administrator Danielle Battle took over as interim superintendent about a month ago.
The school board interviewed three firms to help search for a new leader: HYA, Alma Advisory Group and BWP & Associates, which conducted DeKalb County’s superintendent search in 2019.
In September, Atlanta’s school board reviewed recommendations for each firm and landed on HYA. During the discussion, Board Chair Eshé Collins said they should choose a firm that would prioritize community engagement in the search process.
“It was clear from the references that ... engagement was their strong suit,” Collins said of HYA.
The seven board members present Wednesday all voted in favor of HYA. Board Vice Chair Aretta Baldon and District 4 board member Jennifer McDonald were absent.
The tenures of superintendents have declined nationally in recent years. The average tenure of a district superintendent in Georgia is 2.8 years, slightly below the national average of 3.2 years, according to the Georgia School Superintendents Association.
Leslie Hazle Bussey, executive director of the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement, says the high turnover is often the result of poor board leadership and an impossible job where educators act as CEOs of their school districts.
“They have a whole entire food service organization, where they serve, literally … 50,000 kids a day,” Bussey said. “That’s just the food service portion of that business. There’s a transportation business. … There’s marketing, you have to think about the equipment of your transportation … the actual physical mechanics of a bus fleet.”
Bussey said superintendents in large, urban districts like APS are often expected to be skilled politicians and communications specialists who are also responsible for student achievement. Those kinds of job pressures cause some superintendents to leave even when their boards want them to stay, she said.
According to documents from HYA, the firm will charge APS 20% of the new superintendent’s salary for its work. The district is required to pay the fee in three installments. Battle will earn $320,000 this school year.
Collins said the board is slightly behind its original timeline, which had the board picking a sole finalist by March. She said the board will revise its timeframe for the search process. The new superintendent is expected to begin July 1, 2024.
She closed Wednesday’s meeting by implying the board is anxious to begin the search.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” she said.
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