Jermall Wright is Little Rock School Board’s unanimous choice for superintendent

Jermall D. Wright
Jermall D. Wright

The Little Rock School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to enter into contract negotiations with Jermall D. Wright to be the next superintendent of the 21,000-student school system.

The board voted 9-0 to pursue the hiring of Wright, 45, over the other finalist for the job, George "Eric" Thomas of Atlanta.

The board is seeking a replacement for current Superintendent Mike Poore, 60, who announced in December that he will retire at the end of this school year after six years in the $270,000-a-year position.

Wright since 2019 has been the state-appointed superintendent of the Mississippi Achievement District, which is a combination of the two low-achieving Yazoo City and Humphreys County school systems in the Mississippi Delta.

Little Rock School Board member Vicki Hatter made the specific motion Tuesday night to authorize Board President Greg Adams and the district's attorneys "to conduct additional background checks and contract negotiations with" Wright for the superintendent's job.

Board member Norma Johnson seconded the motion that was then approved with a unanimous voice vote in support.

The motion and vote came after the board had met in a closed, executive session for about two hours and 20 minutes Tuesday night.

"I am grateful and humbled by the board's selection of me to move forward in the process to serve as superintendent of Little Rock School District," Wright said in an email later Tuesday to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

"I am equally thankful to every community member, student, teacher, and staff member who engaged in the process in any way," he continued. "Everyone in the Little Rock community has a role to play in continuing the upward trajectory of the school district, and I am thrilled and excited to work alongside all to ensure a bright future for EVERY child and family we serve."

School Board President Greg Adams said the board -- which has a regular monthly business meeting on Thursday -- intends to hold a special meeting Tuesday to finalize a superintendent contract with Wright.

From 2017-19, Wright was chief academic and accountability officer in the 23,000-student Birmingham, Ala., school system, and he held previous district administrative roles in Philadelphia and Denver. He was the lead instructional superintendent in Denver for three years, 2013 to 2016, and, after that, assistant superintendent in Philadelphia for a year.

His first decade as an educator was in a private, high-poverty school affiliated with his church in his native Jacksonville, Fla. After next working in Jacksonville public schools, he left to be an elementary school principal for four years in Washington, D.C., from 2009 to 2013.

In a handout he passed out about himself last week, Wright said that in each of his leadership roles he led with "compelling vision, inspiration, high expectations, accountability [and] transparency -- not through fear or firing."

Wright, who has three children ranging in age from16 to 20, has a doctorate in leadership for educational equity from University of Colorado at Denver.

Thomas, 53, the other finalist for the job, is an education leadership consultant affiliated with the University of Virginia's Partnership for Leaders in Education.

He is a former deputy superintendent/chief school turnaround officer for the Georgia Board of Education and, as such, provided guidance to eight school districts to improve some of that state's lowest-achieving schools. He is a former high school social studies teacher, principal and, from 2010 to 2012, chief innovation officer in the 35,000-student Cincinnati public schools.

Thomas has a PhD in leadership from the University of Chicago in Concordia, Ill.

Before the board went into the executive session, state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, urged the board to select a superintendent candidate who openly acknowledges the importance of equity in developing a world class school system.

She said she favored one of the two finalists over the other after going through their background information and comments, but she didn't publicly name her preferred candidate.

"There is no need for repeating mediocrity," Elliott told the board, adding later that the Little Rock community at large must be willing to move away from racial and economic separation and segregation "so that everybody can benefit from the systems that other people are enjoying."

Elliott was the only person to address the board during the public comment period Tuesday night.

Wright at a public forum in Little Rock last week was asked about diversity, equity and inclusion.

"I'm a firm believer in doing whatever we need to do to support the needs that our kids and our students have," Wright responded. "Everybody may not get the same thing, but everybody will get what they need."

Wright also said that families must feel a sense of belonging to a school or a district will lose enrollment.

"We have to create a culture within our schools so that every student feels they have a connection with somebody," he said.

Board members had no comments about the candidates before or after the vote Tuesday. Adams, however, expressed gratitude to all the applicants for the job, to the search firm that is assisting in the process and to participants in the district and community.

Board member Sandrekkia Morning also offered thanks to people who met with the candidates last week -- especially students who she said had better questions than the adults.

BWP & Associates of Libertyville, Ill., is the executive search firm that is assisting the board in finding a replacement. The firm recommended five applicants for board interviews.

The board on March 16 selected four to interview online: Wright, Thomas, Lloyd D. Jackson, who is an assistant superintendent of school leadership in the Kansas City, Mo., and Stephanie N. Jones, who works in the Chicago school district as the chief officer for the Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services.

After the online interviews, the board invited Thomas and Wright to visit Little Rock for in-person interviews with the School Board.

During those separate on-site visits last week, the two candidates toured some schools and met with focus groups of district employees, students, parents, business people, civic groups. Each candidate also introduced himself and answered questions from the audience at forums open to the general public.

The School Board asked participants in the focus groups and forums to complete evaluations of the candidates. The evaluations were based on the qualities and characteristics that board members and the community members said earlier this year that they would like to see in a new superintendent.

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