Meria Carstarphen, superintendent of the Austin school district since 2009, was named Thursday as the sole finalist to lead Atlanta’s public schools.
Carstarphen, 44, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she looks forward to the challenge of managing the Atlanta district, which she said is in “turn-around” mode. A formal vote by the Atlanta school board is scheduled for April 14.
“I’m not naive about what it takes to turn around a school or a school district,” she said while in Atlanta. “It will take some heavy lifting.”
In an email to employees of the Austin district, Carstarphen said she is proud of the progress under her watch. “It has been a privilege to serve AISD and to be a champion for public education and Austin’s children,” she wrote.
Now in her fifth year in Austin, Carstarphen has had ups and downs as superintendent.
In December, Austin school trustees praised her for weathering state budget cuts and helping students and staff members raise the overall graduation rate to its highest point, in 2012. But her bosses also admonished her to build better relationships with the community, including parents and staff members.
Carstarphen was the first African-American and the first woman to serve as Austin’s superintendent. Her style has been hands-on; last summer, during a visit to Doss Elementary, she danced with students to a Wii game.
Gina Hinojosa, a member of the Austin school board, said Carstarphen has blazed an important trail for women, minorities and the city.
“We all owe her a debt of gratitude for the passion, heart and tireless work she dedicated to this district,” Hinojosa said. “I will be looking for a new leader who is going to build upon the community schools model that this city has embraced that focuses on every child regardless of economic status.”
Finding Cartstarphen’s successor is “going to test a board that doesn’t like to make decisions,” said Drew Scheberle, senior vice president for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. With five of the nine trustees up for election in November, he recommended that the board pick a strong interim superintendent but wait to select the next superintendent until the new board is in place.
Born and raised in Selma, Ala., Carstarphen started her career as a teacher in the Selma middle school she attended. She is married, and when asked in Atlanta if she had any children, she responded: “Just the 86,000 in Austin and the 47,000 here in Atlanta.”
Although the Austin trustees’ review of Carstarphen in December was high on praise, it didn’t call for a contract extension, unlike her previous two evaluations. Her contract here expires in June 2015.
Some community members and the head of the district’s largest labor group have leveled criticism against Carstarphen for the rejection by voters of half of an $892 million bond package in May, contending that she and her staff failed to prove that all of the money was needed.
Carstarphen was successful in launching a number of nontraditional initiatives, including “early college start” programs at Reagan and LBJ high schools. She shifted away from a traditional bilingual program to establish a dual-language program at such schools as Becker Elementary.
Her efforts drew praise and support from the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s Scheberle noted that graduation rates are up, more students are graduating ready for college, the bond rating is strong and national tests rate Austin as a top urban district. She also brought in a solid team and “we hope a lot of them will consider staying,” Scheberle said.
One of Carstarphen’s most difficult moments came in 2011, amid discussions about possibly closing some schools to save $11.3 million. Hundreds of parents protested that notion as well as the district’s approach, which they decried as opaque.
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