Contributed photo / Jermaine Dawson is one of three finalists for Hamilton County Schools superintendent opening.Hamilton County Schools superintendent candidate Jermaine Dawson told school board members that what he hopes they will take away from reading his resume is that he has been able to go into schools in urban, suburban and rural environments and bring about success by providing support to all students.
Dawson has worked since July 2020 as chief academic and accountability officer for Birmingham City Schools, an urban school district with more than 21,000 students in Birmingham, Alabama. From March 2019 until July 2020 he worked as zone superintendent for Fulton County Schools, an urban and suburban district of 96,000 students in Atlanta, Georgia.
Prior to that, Dawson served as North Florida state director of Charter Schools USA for a year; region superintendent of Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, Florida, for two years; director of schools for Birmingham City Schools for a year; school support officer for Houston Independent School District in Houston, Texas, for a year; and as a principal and assistant principal in Atlanta Public Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, from 2009-2014.
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“I want to make sure that every child is afforded the same opportunities that I’ve been afforded,” said Dawson, adding that he experienced homelessness during childhood. “I made it because of the power of my educators, who I have a relationship with to this very day. I have made it my mission, my calling, to be able to ensure that wherever I go that I’m fighting vigorously and working vigorously to be that advocate and that force for all students.”