Chris Barbic, the new superintendent of Tennessee’s Achievement School District, speaks during an interview at his office in Nashville.NASHVILLE – The man picked to steer Tennessee’s most troubled public schools says he’s eager to get on with the task.
Chris Barbic left the YES Prep Schools he founded in Houston to take the Tennessee education post, co-managing five of the worst-performing schools in Chattanooga and Memphis.
“If you had asked me a year ago if I thought the state running a school was a good idea, I’d have laughed,” Barbic told The Tennessean.
The schools include Howard School of Academics and Technology in Chattanooga as well as Frayser High School, Hamilton High School, Northside High School and Raleigh Egypt Middle School – all in Memphis.
Next year Barbic must decide whether to continue the co-management approach, working with the local school districts. He could opt, instead, to turn the schools into charter schools or have the state take them over entirely.