The Atlanta Board of Education has chosen Tolton Pace, a youth pastor and Atlanta Public Schools valedictorian with an extensive career in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector to fill the District 6 school board seat left vacant by Eshé Collins’ Dec. 3 election to Atlanta City Council.
Pace was sworn in Tuesday afternoon by Fulton County Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk. The nine-member school board oversees the operations of Atlanta Public Schools (APS).
“I’m excited to get to work for all the students and families of Atlanta, truly a dream come true,” said the Southwest Atlanta native after he was sworn in. Pace grew up in District 6 and is married to a 20-year APS educator.
Pace’s whirlwind appointment by the eight other school board members began right after Collins’ election, with a call for applications. Nearly two dozen applicants threw their hat in the ring, according to board chair Erika Mitchell, who described the process as “thoughtful and thorough.” Of those, she said, about half were qualified for the role.
Atlanta school board positions are usually filled by an election, but since the election for the District 6 seat is less than a year away, it fell to the board to appoint a replacement for Collins.
The appointment carries considerable weight, since an incumbent typically has a big advantage for local elected positions.
Four of nine Atlanta Board of Education seats are up for election this fall: Districts 2, 4, 6, and at-large district 8.
While hailed as “transparent” by the board, the appointment process, which was managed by an outside search firm, had limited public input and occurred mostly behind closed doors.
A public engagement forum on Monday evening was the only moment for the school board to gauge public input on the candidates, or for the public to ask questions submitted on physical and virtual cue cards. The board selected three finalists for the forum: Pace who holds a Masters in Public Health from Emory University; former Atlanta school board administrator Wayne Martin Jr., and Nate Jester, a Harvard-educated real estate lawyer and former Marine. All three finalists are APS graduates with roots in District 6.
The hour-and-half forum on Jan. 6, held in an activity room at The Villages at Carver Family YMCA, drew a packed house of about 75 attendees. They appeared to be mostly friends and families of the candidates, current and former city and school officials, or representatives of APS partner organizations, along with some District 6 parents, students, and members of the public.
Following the forum, the school board went into “executive session” in an adjoining room at the YMCA — a meeting closed to the public — to discuss their selection and interview the candidates, who waited outside in the hallway.
Even the candidates themselves didn’t know what went on in there. “I have no idea,” Pace said, when asked if he knew what the specifics of the process were.
Martin, the former school board administrator, said he understood it to be a mostly closed-door process, even though the school board was choosing someone to fill an elected position, because it’s more akin to a hiring decision. Like other personnel matters, that would be handled out of public view. He noted that Georgia law gives the board wide latitude in how they make the appointment.
Still, some of those attending the forum Monday saw holding the public meeting as an improvement toward dispelling the perception that such appointments are only political.
“I am glad that they at least got invited to the table — because many times these kinds of things happen and it’s a shoe-in,” said Tonya Winters, a former APS parent and the Georgia director of the National Parents Union. For Winters, the forum was a chance for the board to see how the audience responded to the candidates and “also let them see that they have a tough choice.”
Maisha Land, a District 6 resident whose children attend APS schools, applauded the board for holding the forum. “Honestly, for the first time in a very long time, I had some confidence in the process,” said the senior administrator for the City of Atlanta, adding that she was impressed by the high turnout on a bitterly cold Monday night.
Leave a comment