UCS Superintendent Not Chosen for Job in Louisville, KY

Utica Community Schools Superintendent Christine Johns will not be leaving the district–at least for now.

The Jefferson County Public Schools District in Louisville, KY, announced the new superintendent of the state’s largest district will be Donna Hargens.

Johns and Hargens were chosen as the top two finalists for the job. Last week, both women appeared before parents in a public forum, and after a meeting this week, the JCPS Board of Education unanimously voted in Hargens, according to Fox 41.  She will replace JCPS Superintendent Sheldon Berman, whose contract was not renewed.

Hargens, 53, is the chief academic officer for the Wake County Public Schools, a district with 143,000 students in Raleigh, NC. She has served as interim superintendent and deputy superintendent in the district.

Johns, 45, has been the superintendent at UCS, a district with about 30,000 students, since 2006. Before then, she was the deputy superintendent at Baltimore County Schools.

During a contentious UCS Board of Education meeting Monday, where the board ultimately approved a budget for next year that would eliminate winter and spring athletics for seventh- and eighth-grade students, a parent snidely asked Johns how her job interview in KY went. UCS Board of Education President Carol Klenow asked the parent to stay on topic.