School & District Management

New Leaders for Districts With New Governance

By Jaclyn Zubrzycki — June 27, 2013 1 min read
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The Prince George’s County, Md. and Camden, N.J. school districts, both of which have new governance structures as of this spring, selected new leaders this week.

Kevin Maxwell, who has been the superintendent of the Anne Arundel County, Md., school system since 2006, will be the Prince George’s County school district’s first chief executive officer, the Washington Post reports.

Prince George’s County, which borders the District of Columbia, is home to the nation’s 21st-largest school district. Maxwell will report to county executive Rushern L. Baker III, after the Maryland legislature passed a bill that gave him authority to appoint several board members and select the district’s leader. Prince George’s is the only county in Maryland to have that school governance structure.

Maxwell, who resigned today from his superintendent’s post in the nearby Anne Arundel school district, has deep roots in the county: He was a teacher, a principal, and administrator in the district. Alvin Crawley has been leading the district since the departure of William R. Hite, who is now superintendent of the Philadelphia school district.

Meanwhile, in Camden, where the state recently took over the school district, interim superintendent Reuben Mills will be replaced by a new interim superintendent, Margaret “Peggy” Nicolosi, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Nicolosi had been a superintendent in Salem, N.J., and was the executive county superintendent in Camden, in which role she apparently oversaw some of the district’s financial decisions.

The state officially took over the district today, and the Inquirer has a piece capturing some of the community’s reaction to the state’s takeover: Teachers are protesting, and board members are wondering just what their role is now that the state’s in charge. As I reported earlier this month, state takeovers in New Jersey have a fraught history.

Several other districts are moving closer to finding new superintendents or district leaders: Indianapolis has narrowed its field of applicants to three. Wake County has also found a new leader, James Merrill (not the poet).

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A version of this news article first appeared in the District Dossier blog.