E. Rivers Principal Named District Superintendent

Principal David White was promoted to an area superintendent's position Monday in the wake of the state investigation report over the CRCT cheating scandal.

The Atlanta School Board approved White's promotion from principal of the Buckhead school to executive director of one of four geographic areas known as School Reform Teams. White will lead SRT 4, according to a news release from APS. He replaces Tamara Cotman, one of the APS officials implicated in the cheating scandal report.

Three other principals were also promoted to SRT posts under Interim Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr.'s reorganization plan after the CRCT report's release last week.

In other action at the meeting, District 2 school board member and former chairman Khaatim Sherrer El resigned to take an out-of-state position. Sherrer El's takeover of the chairmanship's post after the cheating scandal surfaced led to a court battle among board members and the APS high schools being placed on accreditation probation. Sherrer El recently stepped down as chairman and Brenda J. Muhammad was elected to the post.

A special election will be held in November to elect a new board member for District 2. The board is expected to elect an interim representative to serve until the election.

Including White, the school board approved a new leadership team under Davis plan. Here are the changes, according to the APS announcement:         

• SRT-1 – Donell Underdue, former principal at Brown Middle School, replaces Sharon Davis-Williams as executive director
• SRT-2 – Danielle Battle, former principal at Martin Luther King Middle School, replaces Michael Pitts as executive director
• SRT-3 – Betsy Bockman, former principal at Inman Middle Schools, replaces Robin Hall as executive director
• SRT-4 – David White, former principal at E. Rivers Elementary School, replaces Tamara Cotman as executive director

Keisha Gibbons, former assistant principal at Centennial Place Elementary School, will take the place of Emalyn Foreman as principal at Boyd Elementary School, a district year-round school that begins classes for the new school year Wednesday. Additional personnel actions associated with the state investigation are expected, the APS announcement said.

To read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article on the meeting, see this link.