The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta schools leader lauded in mid-year review
Board highlights improved grad rates, oversight.
Atlanta superintendent Meria Carstarphen won praise from the school board after her mid-year evaluation, though a discussion about a contract extension will come later.
Carstarphen, who took over the top district post in 2014 and makes a base salary of $390,150, received credit for improving graduation rates, enacting the district’s strategy to turnaround struggling schools and her oversight of operations.
“As the new board, we are pleased with her progress to implement our collective vision for the school system. We remain on target with the five-year strategic plan, and we are confident that she will remain a strong leader for us as we strive to create a caring culture of trust and collaboration to prepare every student for college and career,” said Atlanta Board of Education chairman Jason Esteves, during a Monday meeting.
He made the remarks after the school board met privately to conduct her midyear review. State law permits the board to perform the evaluation behind closed doors, which Esteves said allows for “an unvarnished sense of the state of the district” and “a more candid assessment of the superintendent’s work.”
Last January, the board gave Carstarphen her second contract extension so that it now runs through June 30, 2019.
Esteves said he plans to wait until her end-of-year evaluation in the summer to talk about contract details. That will give the three newest board members, who joined the board last month, more time to get up to speed, he said.
Carstarphen cited a hike in graduation rates to 77 percent for the class of 2017, up from 59 percent rate for the class of 2014. Starting in 2015, the state no longer required high schoolers to pass state tests in each content area to
graduate.
She also pointed to recent success on state report card scores. In 2016-17, about two thirds of APS schools saw
scores increase.
She also highlighted some hardships during the first half of the school year, including delays in collecting Fulton County property tax revenue because of problems during the assessment and tax billing process. That caused a cash-flow pinch, which required APS to take out a $100 million loan and freeze spending and hiring to make payroll in the weeks leading up to Dec. 31.
“It was a very stressful first semester, but that did not stop the work,” Carstarphen said.
She noted that additional work remains to be done to solve school overcrowding in the Grady cluster and in other schools that struggle with under-enrollment.
“I’m the first to acknowledge that we have yet to have a perfectly smooth year,” she said. “I’m still very excited about being here.”