Many Alabama schools under new leadership this year

Above: Birmingham city schools Superintendent Kelley Castlin-Gacutan officially confers the diplomas of 100 students Tuesday, who either graduated after completing summer school or earned a diploma through the district’s Dropout Recovery Program. Castlin-Gacutan has officially been at the helm in Birmingham for a little more than a month. This is her first full-time superintendency (Marie Leech/Alabama NewsCenter).
As a new school year begins, several superintendents are preparing to lead an Alabama school system for the first time ever.
Out of 138 school superintendents across the state, 29 of them – roughly one in five – are either brand new or have less than a year of experience at the helm of a district. Five additional systems will replace superintendents this month.
“We have an extremely large number of new superintendents this year – the largest number we’ve ever seen for it to be a non-election year,” said Eric Mackey, executive director of the School Superintendents of Alabama. Thirty-seven of the 138 superintendent positions are elected, he explained, and 26 of those are on the same cycle as the U.S. presidential election. During those years, it’s more common to have a higher number of new superintendents.
Typically, about 15 new superintendents start each school year, he said.
“This is an unusual year – we’ve had a heavy number of retirements,” he said. “We’ve definitely had to double our professional development efforts,” which includes an intensive mentoring program in which new leaders are paired with veteran ones.
While it’s helpful for a superintendent to come to a district with experience and an understanding of how a school system works, the fresh ideas and passion brought to the position by a first-timer can also be invaluable, Mackey said.
New leaders, fresh perspective
“This is an incredibly strong group of superintendents, and some have good leadership experience in other states,” he said. “Everybody who’s come in this year has a deep passion for public education.”

Birmingham city schools Superintendent Kelley Castlin-Gacutan poses with graduate DeMarkus R. Richardson and Woodlawn High School Principal Jesse Daniel during Birmingham’s summer commencement Tuesday. Castlin-Gacutan has officially been at the helm of Birmingham since July 1. This is her first full-time superintendency. (Marie Leech/Alabama NewsCenter)
One of the new superintendents is Kelley Castlin-Gacutan, who last month took the helm in Birmingham city schools, the fourth-largest district in the state. While this is her first full-time superintendency – she served as interim superintendent in Bibb County, Ga. – she believes her time spent as an administrator, most recently in Georgia, helps bring a fresh perspective to Birmingham. She also happens to be from Hueytown.
“I guess you could say life has come full circle for me,” she said. “It’s really an honor and a privilege to be given this opportunity and I’m ready to take Birmingham to the next level.”
State Superintendent Tommy Bice held his first meeting with local school superintendents over the summer and said he was impressed.
“When I met with them this summer, it was one of the more positive meetings I’ve had,” he said. “They had innovative ideas and I left that meeting pumped and very encouraged. We’ve got some folks out there willing to challenge the way things have always been done.”
Filling a critical role
He said as long as the new superintendents have a good support and mentoring system, they can be great leaders. And as Bice well knows, a superintendent can “make or break” a school system.
“When I first came to the Department of Education as deputy superintendent, I looked at the chronically underperforming schools and I compared them to systems with similar demographics and poverty levels,” he said. “Very quickly what rose to the top was leadership.”
Superintendents, Mackey said, are the “glue that holds everything together.”
“When you don’t have a superintendent, the system keeps moving, but it doesn’t necessarily move forward,” he said. “It’s imperative you have a person in place that will keep the system moving in the right direction.”

The new superintendents in the state or those with less than one year on the job at the start of this school year along with the date they started, according to the School Superintendents of Alabama. The first five names will come off the list after this week and those with an (I) are interim expected to become permanent.