Fulton County School board members have not yet detailed how they plan to replace outgoing Superintendent Robert Avossa, but education leaders say finding someone to fill his shoes won’t be easy.
Considered a politically savvy leader with a reputation as a school innovator in Georgia, Avossa helped build Fulton’s reputation as one of the top-performing districts in the state. During his 4-year tenure, the district saw its graduation rate and standardized test scores improve, among other achievements.
“Fulton is moving in a positive direction,” said Gary Ray, president of Ray and Associates, whose firm conducts superintendent searches for school districts across the country. “So I think you want someone who’s going to continue the work Avossa had started … and be able to re-establish those goals.”
Finding someone qualified to lead a district as large as Fulton can take a year or more. Fulton could also end up competing with nearby DeKalb County schools, which is also looking for a new leader.
Fulton school board members are expected to discuss the superintendent search this summer, said board president Linda McCain. The board named Kenneth Zeff, Fulton’s chief strategy and innovation officer, as interim superintendent beginning June 2.
Avossa was recently appointed the new superintendent for the school district of Palm Beach County in Florida, the 11th largest in the country with more than 183,000 students. He and Fulton school board members say there’s no tension between them, and he’s not being pressured to leave the district, Georgia’s fourth-largest with nearly 96,000 students.
McCain said the board has not decided whether it will hire a search firm to find Avossa’s replacement. She also doesn’t know if the board will focus on candidates already employed with Fulton schools or outside candidates.
During Avossa’s tenure, Fulton became the largest charter district in the state, which gives it freedom from many education mandates in exchange for meeting certain education goals. Whoever replaces Avossa will need to continue expanding charter options for schools, board members say.
“He was an excellent leader,” McCain said. “His departure has not caused any ill feeling. Early on we knew he was being recruited … and we said, ‘Hey, we want to make sure we have a sustainable system in place so when you leave, we don’t skip a beat with the rollout of the charter system.’ So he did that.”
Board member Katie Reeves echoed those comments: “I’m looking for somebody who can build on what we have and bring new energy and vision to us to enhance it. I think (school) choice is going to color a lot of our positive changes over the next few years.”
James Reese, whose 17-year-old son attends Westlake High School in south Fulton, lauded Avossa’s work creating Fulton’s charter district and noted that graduation rates and standardized test scores have gotten better at his son’s school. Schools in north Fulton have traditionally had higher scores and graduation rates than a number of south Fulton schools, and Reese said the achievement gap needs to be lessened even more with the next superintendent.
“Overall I think he’s (Avossa) done a great job,” Reese said.
Fulton’s 2014 graduation rate is 78.7 percent – a 3.2 percentage point increase over the 2013 rate of 75.5, which outpaces all other large school districts as well as the state’s increase of 0.7 percentage points.
More than 80 percent of Fulton’s Class of 2014 took the SAT, and results showed Fulton has more schools with high SAT performance than any other district in Georgia and is ranked third in overall SAT score. Fulton has the state’s second-highest math score and is tied for first for the writing section.
In DeKalb, school board officials are searching for a superintendent to lead the district, which has been at risk in recent years of losing its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation amid management and financial problems. Gov. Nathan Deal replaced six elected school board members in 2013.
DeKalb's school board recently voted to fire the search firm charged with finding a replacement for superintendent Michael Thurmond. The contract with Illinois search firm PROACT Search was severed over misconduct allegations against SUPES Academy, which is run by Gary Solomon, who also runs PROACT.
Gary Ray, with the superintendent search firm Ray and Associates, said DeKalb and Fulton could end up vying for the same candidates because the districts are similar in size. DeKalb, in particular, will need someone with years of experience who can steer the district back on course.
“You’re going to have to find someone that can look at the deficiencies and get the board working together to solve those deficiencies,” Ray said. “Otherwise they’ll find themselves back in that same position.”
“I don’t think DeKalb is going to be a place of ‘learning on the job,’ ” Ray said. “I don’t think it’s a secret … they’ve had some issues, so the board’s going to have make sure they don’t fall back into ‘Let’s do business as usual.’ ”
Dan Domenech, executive director for national group the School Superintendents Association, said DeKalb is likely to have the more challenging job. He said the board needs to specifically go after candidates who have proven track records of turning around “districts with difficult situations.”
“You’re going to have to be willing to pay a salary that would excite someone to come and work there and do the job. Certainly that might be more challenging, but there are folks out there who are capable who do want the challenge and do want to make a difference in a community like DeKalb.”
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