DeKalb County School District Superintendent Michael Thurmond has made Georgia Trend Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the state.
The "power list" includes federal and state politicians, corporate chieftains and big-time university and nonprofit presidents. Only one local superintendent made the list: Thurmond, a lawyer and former state labor commissioner, who was an unusual appointment as a local school superintendent in 2013. He is credited by the magazine with stabilizing the troubled district in the heart of metro Atlanta.
Thurmond improved student achievement and increased graduation rates, the magazine notes. He also rebuilt the district’s wrecked finances. Of course, achievement has generally risen across Georgia during Thurmond’s brief tenure in education. So have graduation rates, though DeKalb’s slightly outpaced the state’s. And the overall economic recovery helped rebuild the finances of DeKalb and many other districts.
Still, when Thurmond took over, the district was on the brink of accreditation loss and was mired in deficit — threats that have receded. “The former commissioner of labor inherited a mess when he took over leadership of the third-largest school system in Georgia,” the magazine said. “He stabilized the troubled district … Along the way, he has enhanced his reputation as a leader and public education advocate.”
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