DeKalb schools could know who its permanent superintendent will be this spring. (Miguel Martinez / [email protected])
By Cassidy Alexander
More than two dozen hopefuls have applied to be the next superintendent of the DeKalb County School District.
The Georgia School Boards Association received 26 completed application packets by the Jan. 8 deadline, said the organization’s spokesman, Justin Pauly, in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Three other candidates began the application process but did not finish.
Details about candidates will be confidential until the board is ready to announce one or more finalists. On Thursday, the organization presented the applications to the school board during a closed-door meeting, Pauly said.
Interim Superintendent Vasanne Tinsley has been leading the state’s third-largest school district since late April, when the school board fired Cheryl Watson-Harris from the top job in a split vote. Watson-Harris had been on the job for less than two years.
Tinsley told the AJC in an August interview that she is focusing on the district’s immediate needs — but “it’s not a no” when it comes to whether she is interested in the permanent job.
Vasanne Tinsley, the interim superintendent of the DeKalb County School District, is at Towers High School on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. The school system was assessing and fixing school structures across the district through the summer. (Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)The school board will spend roughly a month interviewing candidates, per the timeline used by the GSBA. The board has said it hopes to hire a new superintendent this spring. The anticipated start date is July 1, according to an announcement about the search.
Members of the community can continue to provide input about what qualities they’d hope to see in the next superintendent through an online survey.
Read the original story on AJC.com.
