No Mo for CMS

Maurice "Mo" Green, superintendent of Guilford County Schools, isn't in the running to succeed the Charlotte-Mecklenburg superintendent he helped hire.

Green in 2008

Ever since Peter Gorman resigned last summer, there's been talk that Green might be the next leader of CMS.  Green was the CMS attorney when the board hired Gorman in 2006.  Gorman was so impressed with Green's work on the hiring negotiations that he soon named Green his deputy.  In 2008, the state's third-largest district lured Green away from the second-largest,  and Green used many of the same approaches to education that won national acclaim for Gorman and CMS.

Early on,  Green wouldn't return my calls asking whether he might apply.  But Guilford Chief of Staff Nora Carr,  another CMS alum, told me this week that he was approached about applying but declined.

"I think he's very happy here,  but he was flattered by the interest,"  she said.

Two Atlanta superintendent finalists have CMS history

The troubled Atlanta school system last night named three finalists for the superintendent's job, and two have a history with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Cheryl Atkinson, who's currently leading the city school system in Lorain, Ohio, graduated from Garinger High and did a stint in the upper levels of CMS administration from 2003 to 2006. She was recently a finalist for the CEO's job in Cleveland.

Barbara Jenkins, deputy superintendent in Orange County, Fla., spent some time leading human resources for CMS. She's a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy, which trains and places leaders in urban districts.

Atlanta is just one of several urban districts seeking a new leader -- a pack CMS officially joins tonight, when the school board meets to start planning to replace Peter Gorman. Anyone can come (6 p.m. at the Government Center, 600 E. Fourth St.), but you'll probably just end up hanging out with reporters while the board discusses an interim in closed session.

And CMS alumni are making their presence known in the big leadership shuffle. The last three years have seen former Deputy Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green go to Guilford County; former Chief Academic Officer Ruth Perez take over a suburban Los Angeles district; and Chief Accountability Officer Jonathan Raymond named superintendent in Sacramento, Calif.. Most recently, Raymond's successor, Robert Avossa, was hired to lead Fulton County Schools just outside Atlanta.