A timeline of Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson’s first year on the job is at the end of the article.
Bryan Johnson likes to rearrange the furniture in his home, positioning the pictures frames and decorations just so. But a week or two later, after noticing the imperfections, he’ll rearrange it again, trying to find a better, more effective layout.
In his first year at the helm of Hamilton County Schools, the state’s fourth-largest school district, the 36-year-old has been doing the same – rearranging the district, trying out what might work to create a better, more efficient school system.
“When we as a board met to hire a new superintendent, we were talking about how we wanted somebody who was willing to make some bold changes,” said school board member Kathy Lennon, of District 2. “He’s made those bold changes.”
Johnson has hired and shifted dozens of positions in the central office and in school leadership roles, launched an effort to tackle systemic problems in the district’s historically worst-performing schools, forged relationships with the business community and mediated a new partnership with the state.