DeKalb School Board Approves Watson-Harris As District’s New Superintendent

“We are excited and proud to officially welcome Mrs. Watson-Harris to DeKalb County School District as our next superintendent,” DeKalb County School Board Chair Marshall Orson said in a statement. “Her experience as both an innovator at the New York City Department of Education and a passionate champion for children is precisely what we need to continue positioning our students for success.”

Watson-Harris previously served as network superintendent and principal for Boston Public Schools. She’s worked in education for 26 years, according to her bio.

“I was raised in New York City, and I worked in Boston and New York, but I’ve also spent a lot of quality time in DeKalb County, visiting my relatives who made DeKalb their home many years ago, and I have long thought that the Atlanta area, in particular DeKalb, would be a wonderful place to live and work,” Watson-Harris said during a Zoom call with Atlanta media.

Although she’s worked in school administration, Watson-Harris hasn’t served as a superintendent before. School board member Joyce Morley said that was one reason why she doesn’t think Watson-Harris is the right fit for DeKalb.

“The woman is not qualified,” Morley said. “She’s not experienced, and I tell you … am I in awe? No. But I am shameful, I am disappointed that yet once again, that this board is willing to go down this path.”

Morley said Watson-Harris’s nomination was rushed. The board chose her after failing to confirm its original sole finalist, former New York Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew, in April.

“There’s no way in the world anyone on this board would be looking for a nanny and go out there and pick someone up who’s never gone to nanny school … as a matter of fact, was in a discarded pile from before, allow that person to come in, interview them over Zoom, for maybe [an] amount of eight hours total and within less than 72 hours give them an actual contract,” Morley said. “Something is wrong with that picture.”

Morley was the board’s only “no” vote.

Other board members clapped for Watson-Harris after the vote. Her official start date is July 1.

One of her first tasks will be guiding the district’s reopening plans amid COVID-19. Watson-Harris said she’s learned plenty of lessons while working in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.

“My approach would be to, one, review the [reopening] plan as it stands now to apply some of the lessons learned here in New York City, but also get community input in terms of hopes and dreams for our families and pull all of that together to ensure that we have the right and most thoughtful process for school reopening,” she said. “I think it would be premature for me to offer specifics at this time. I have to get down there and really dig in.”

Watson-Harris will replace DeKalb’s current superintendent, Ramona Tyson, who will retire at the end of June.