Interim Clayton County schools chief lays out 60-day plan to align district

Dr. Douglas Hendricks Sr., interim superintendent and CEO of Clayton County Public Schools, told district and school leaders that the district will follow a 60-day plan divided into three 20-day chapters to address fragmentation across departments and improve consistency for students.

Hendricks said a district review over the prior 90 days found systems in instruction, finance, governance, communication and operations had become fragmented and inconsistent. "Over the last 90 days, we worked to level set this district across divisions, departments, schools, and leadership structures," he said, framing the review as the basis for the new plan.

The first 20 days, Hendricks said, will focus on "strengthening the core" by tightening operations and instruction. He described continued work by cross-functional teams to remove operational and instructional barriers and said governance training will continue to clarify the difference between governance and administration.

The second 20-day phase will center on building trust and ownership, Hendricks said, through listening tours, parent engagement efforts, literacy visibility campaigns, leadership development and a leadership symposium focused on coherent systems and practices. He emphasized that events must be paired with measurable evidence that community voices influence decisions.

The final 20 days, he said, will be about institutionalizing those changes: establishing accountability routines, instructional visibility and performance monitoring so improvements persist beyond particular personalities. "The goal is to reshape the rhythm of this organization itself," he said.

Hendricks framed the work as foundational rather than glamorous and said the aim is to protect classrooms from administrative distraction and make literacy an everyday outcome. He closed by stressing urgency for students: "The work continues and the children are still waiting."