Bryan Johnson, a former superintendent of the Hamilton County school district in Chattanooga, is the Atlanta school board’s sole finalist for superintendent.
The board announced Johnson as the finalist Tuesday morning at the school district’s central office in downtown Atlanta. State law requires the board to wait 14 days before taking a vote on hiring Johnson.
“This is a phenomenal opportunity,” Johnson said during the announcement. “Our goal is to be the best urban school district in the country and I firmly believe that we are positioned and poised to do just that.”
Johnson was hired to lead Hamilton County Schools in June of 2017. He resigned in August of 2021 with three years left on his contract. From there, he became chief transformation officer at trucking company U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. Johnson currently serves as the executive vice chancellor and chief strategy officer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC).
In 2021, Johnson, a Nashville native, was named Tennessee Superintendent of the Year and was a finalist for National Superintendent of the Year. He worked for 10 years in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, northwest of Nashville. Johnson attended Austin Peay State University, Belmont University and Trevecca Nazarene University, where he earned a doctorate in educational leadership, according to his UTC bio.