Decatur Superintendent Phyllis Edwards told the AJC Tuesday night she will join the Georgia School Boards Association shortly after her tenure ends with City Schools Decatur.
Former Decatur school board chairman Valarie Wilson confirmed that she’s been pursuing Edwards since becoming the GSBA’s executive director July 1.
“It’s not official yet, we’re still working out details,” said Wilson, a Decatur school-board member from 2002-13. “But I want her and she told me yes.”
Technically the opening is for Head of Superintendent Searches, but Wilson said that with the GSBA going through a re-organization, the post would be a hybrid of working on searches and also on board development.
“It sounds like a great job to me,” Edwards said. “I’d get to meet with different school boards, learn about different communities and help match a [superintendent] candidate with characteristics the community wants.”
Edwards, 64, announced her resignation in March, and initially planned on moving back to Palm Coast, Fla., where she worked 21 years as a teacher and assistant superintendent before coming to Decatur. But with the GSBA offices in Lawrenceville, she and her husband Stephen Edwards will remain in their Stone Mountain home.
As of this Thursday Edwards will have been Decatur superintendent for 12 years and three months.
Decatur’s school board may name her replacement as early as this Friday, but it’s still uncertain when that person will start. Most superintendents, according to experts, come on board either at the school year’s beginning or in January.
In May Decatur’s board interviewed the GSBA as a potential search firm in seeking Edwards’ successor, but wound up choosing Rosemont, Illinois, firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates.
Wilson said she’s flexible on a start date, but Edwards seems ready to roll.
“My [Decatur] contract expires Dec. 31,” Edwards said. “So I see myself starting in January.”
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