Now that Atlanta Public Schools has finalized its choice of a new leader, the real work can start.
The Atlanta Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved a three-year contract for its new superintendent, Bryan Johnson, the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga chief strategy officer. The contract is effective Aug. 5.
Johnson comes with a reputation for turnarounds. During his tenure as superintendent of Hamilton County Schools in Tennessee from 2017 to 2021, the district improved to the state’s second-highest performing district from 130th.
In Atlanta, he faces the challenges of boosting literacy rates, overcoming a perception of inequity between schools in different neighborhoods, and skepticism from others that APS picked another leader from outside the area.
“We are in a critical situation and we do not have the space for someone to learn how to take care of our communities and our babies,” said Wykeshia Howe during a brief public comment period before the board voted on Monday. Howe ran in 2021 for the APS Board District 1 seat against current board member Katie Howard. She lives in southeast Atlanta and is the mother of eight children, two of whom graduated from APS.
The new schools chief heard directly from Atlanta residents during a series of six town halls as part of the district’s state-mandated vetting period for superintendents. Capital B attended three stops on Johnson’s listening tour, at Therrell High School and Booker T. Washington High School in southwest Atlanta last week and at Carver Early College in southeast Atlanta on June 25.
Residents at the events were particularly concerned about the district’s literacy rates.
Last year, roughly 57% of APS elementary students were reading at or above grade level, according to the Georgia College and Career Ready Performance Index. The district included $11.8 million in its fiscal year 2025 budget for literacy initiatives aimed at addressing the problem, including making literacy coaches available for students in all 55 of its elementary schools.
Resource allocation is also a major concern, a point that southeast Atlanta resident Kimberly Brooks made at the June meeting at Carver Early College. Brooks said she has been advocating for her community, The Villages at Carver apartment complex, for over 10 years.
Brooks told Johnson that, historically, there has been a funding imbalance between schools in northern Atlanta and schools on the south side. That inequity, she said, results in different outcomes for students based on where they live. She hopes Johnson can address that.
“I don’t see accountability,” Brooks said. “The north doesn’t know what’s going on in the south.”
Residents might get some clarity about how Johnson plans to address the issues they raised from his 100-day plan, which he’s required to submit to the board by his swearing-in ceremony in August. The plan will detail his course of action as the fourth superintendent in the last decade to lead the state’s largest urban school district, with some 50,000 students across 87 learning sites.
In a nod to residents’ concerns about his connection to Atlanta, Johnson said Monday that he plans to enroll his child, a rising seventh grader, at an APS school.
At-large District 7 board member Alfred ‘Shivy’ Brooks said Johnson’s willingness to bring his child to the district reflects well on both the new schools chief and APS.
“We have the superintendent with a child that will be in the district,” Brooks said. “We all have skin in the game. This is not about politics. This is about great outcomes for the kids in the city of Atlanta.”
Still, some parents need more convincing.
Residents who attended a meeting at Booker T. Washington on July 3 expressed concern that the 14-day community engagement period between Johnson’s announcement and approval of his contract seemed too short for stakeholders to get to know him.
“Why would you all have this vetting period and not have enough time for us to meet, greet and express how we feel?” Howe said.
School board chair Erika Mitchell said the quick turnaround was largely due to a state-required vetting period before the start of the new school year. However, she ensured community members that wouldn’t be the last chance they had to meet with the new superintendent.
“Does that mean we stop engagement after 14 days? No,” Mitchell said. “Engagement will continue to go on but we had to meet the state requirement which is why we rolled it out as fast as we could.”
At the Booker T. Washington town hall, Johnson told Howe that he knows he has to set realistic goals given his quick transition into the role. But the ultimate goal, he said, is to collaborate with the community as he learns the city and his new job.
“The goal will be to work with the school to figure out how we inspire,” he said. “There’s an opportunity here and we should lean into it.”
