We’re not done yet, Superintendent Beverly Hall tells board of Metro Atlanta chamber

Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall had one message for board members of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Her work, with the community’s help, is not done.

At today’s board meeting, which is closed to the press, Hall was congratulated for being named the nation’s top superintendent last month by the American Association of School administrators.

“It took a lot of community support to get to where we are today,” Hall said in a quick interview after the board meeting. “And it’s going to take at least the same amount of focus to keep us moving in the right direction.”

Hall appealed to the business leaders to continue working with her the school system to improve public education in the city of Atlanta.

“There’s always a tendancy when you start moving in the right direction to slow down,” Hall said. “You can’t let up. We have an opportunity to really become one of the first urban systems in the country to transform itself from grades K through 12. We’re getting there, but the last part of climb is the toughest.”

For Hall, who has been Atlanta’s superintendent for 10 years, success will defined in one way — “graduating 80 percent of our students after four years of high school, prepared for success either in college or in a career.”

As she told chamber leaders, since 2002, graduation rates have gone from 39 percent to 71 percent.