The Atlanta school board voted unanimously Monday to make Bryan Johnson the district’s next superintendent.
A Nashville native, Johnson was named Tennessee Superintendent of the Year in 2021 and was a finalist for National Superintendent of the Year. Johnson most recently served as the executive vice chancellor and chief strategy officer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Johnson will take office a little more than a year after the school board decided to part ways with former Superintendent Lisa Herring. Interim Superintendent Danielle Battle will stay with Atlanta Public Schools until the end of August to help with the transition, the district said. Johnson will be sworn in on Aug. 5.
Johnson said his priorities include ongoing efforts to improve student performance in literacy, special education, math and college and career preparation.
“Atlanta is a destination job and I look forward to working collaboratively with the board to ensure our students are prepared for their future,” Johnson said in a prepared statement.
The board announced Johnson as its sole finalist for the job on June 18 but is required by state law to hold a two-week vetting period before casting a final vote. Atlanta took three weeks. During that time, Johnson has met with community members during a series of six town halls in different regions of the district.
Attendees wasted no time detailing problems across the district’s different clusters — from a lack of resources at some schools to problems with special education to concerns about safety, the district’s budget and chronic absenteeism. Johnson told them he took their concerns seriously but also tried to manage expectations.
(BACKGROUND: Former Hamilton County Superintendent Bryan Johnson takes role at UTC)
“I don’t know if I told y’all this, but I didn’t come in here with no cape,” he said during a meeting at Benjamin E. Mays High School on June 27.
Johnson said he planned to use feedback from the town halls to help him put together a plan for his first 100 days in office. He didn’t offer many specifics, but promised to “attack the work.”
“There is a(n) unapologetic sense of urgency about student achievement,” he said during a meeting at Midtown High School on June 24. “We want to be able to move with a level of focus and precision that puts children in position to succeed, and that success just trickles throughout the district.”
Johnson was hired to lead Hamilton County Schools in June of 2017. He resigned in August 2021 with three years left on his contract. From there, he became chief transformation officer at logistics company U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc.
He also worked for 10 years in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, northwest of Nashville.
When introducing Johnson as the sole finalist, Atlanta school board Chair Erika Mitchell praised his tenure in Hamilton County. She credited him with improving academic achievement, boosting teacher retention and building partnerships between schools and businesses.
“He’s a match for our leadership profile,” Mitchell recently told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The community (panel) had an opportunity to interview him. They gave us positive feedback, which is key, and the board made a unanimous decision that he’d be the best person to lead our district forward.”