The Atlanta school board announced it's in the "final stage" of selecting the district's next superintendent, a leader who will be tasked with taking over during a time of unprecedented challenge and uncertainty.
Board Chairman Jason Esteves released a statement Friday about the search, which the board launched in September after a majority of members did not support extending Superintendent Meria Carstarphen's contract.
Carstarphen’s contract expires June 30.
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Esteves said the board has conducted four rounds of interviews, including in-person interviews and some done with a panel of community members. That panel, according to the board's website, consists of 17 people representing students, parents, employees, nonprofit organizations and others.
“We know that these are difficult times for all of us due to the crisis created by COVID-19. Please know that we are strongly committed to ensuring that Dr. Carstarphen is successful through the term of her contract, which will end on June 30, 2020, and that the incoming superintendent has a stable and smooth transition in anticipation of the 2020-2021 school year,” Esteves said in the statement.
He did not announce a date when the board would make an announcement. The board’s initial timeline called for the announcement of a sole finalist in May.
State law allows the board to conduct interviews and complete most of the search process behind closed doors. It requires the board to wait 14 days between announcing a finalist and voting to make the hiring decision official.
The school board has held a series of virtual meetings to discuss the superintendent search. Those have been done by teleconference. The board’s most recent regular meeting was March 2, and its regular April meeting was cancelled.
Atlanta schools held their last day of in-person instruction on March 13. Since then, Carstarphen has led three virtual town halls on Facebook live, during which parents and staffers have asked hundreds of questions and several have commented that the board should retain her to guide APS through the coronavirus response.
Carstarphen and the district’s administrative team are wrestling with decisions about summer programming and the start of the next school year. She announced last week the district would suspend most summer programs and redirect that money to next school year, when remediation and additional academic support will be required to help students who have been doing school work from home.
The district also must prepare and the board must approve a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
In the past, the board typically has hosted events to introduce the superintendent finalist to the community before the hiring vote. Those meetings are a chance for parents, employees and residents to ask the finalist questions. The board has not said how it will handle that part of the process given the current closure of school buildings through the end of the school year.
