The state’s new Chief Turnaround Officer — who doesn’t officially start his new job until next week– said during a meeting Wednesday that he hopes to be ready in the next few weeks to release the list of schools he plans to work with in the first year.
Eric Thomas, who was hired recently to lead Georgia’s school turnaround program, told members of the State Board of Education’s First Priority Act committee that he is currently developing a 60-day plan. “To do this, I am creating a backwards roadmap from early January to today,” said Thomas. “And in order to meet my own deadline, we need to have the schools identified in the next few weeks that we want to work with in the first phase.”
Thomas said he also plans to create talking points, as well as a one- or two-pager that will “communicate the talking points to parents and other stakeholders, and will provide clarity of the turnaround process.”
According to Thomas, he has been busy meeting and creating relationships with essential stakeholders. He also said he plans to send a letter to all 26 districts that are included on the ‘turnaround eligible’ list.
During a recent interview with InsiderAdvantage, State Board of Education Chair Mike Royal says there was never any doubt that Eric Thomas was the right person to lead Georgia’s school turnaround program.
“The Board and the Advisory Committee were unanimous in their choice,” said Royal, following the announcement of hiring. “We knew this was our guy when we met him. He has a very diverse background, he’s very credible, and has been doing this work for years. He has a great ability to communicate and articulate the important work that needs to be done in Georgia schools. We are excited that we had the level of candidate we had, and excited that we were able to find such a qualified and capable person as we did in Mr. Thomas.”
Thomas comes to Georgia from Virginia where he has been working as the chief support officer of the University of Virginia’s turnaround program. Prior to the University of Virginia, Thomas was the Chief Innovation Officer for the Cincinnati Public Schools. As a member of the superintendent’s cabinet, Thomas’ responsibilities included redesigning the district’s teacher evaluation system, leading new district improvement initiatives, facilitating the development of new schools, and launching a Principal Development Academy.
