Shelley Redinger named semifinalist for top job at Nashville school district
Three days after withdrawing from consideration for a schools chief position in Arizona, Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Shelley Redinger is one of five semifinalists to lead the second-largest district in Tennessee.
On Tuesday night, the Metro Nashville Public Schools board announced it has narrowed a list of 19 candidates for superintendent to five, all of whom will be interviewed next week.
The board is anticipated to make an offer to a candidate at its March 24 meeting.
Redinger, who has led Spokane Public Schools since 2012, was one of three finalists for the superintendent’s job in Scottsdale, Arizona. She interviewed last week, but withdrew from consideration after deciding with her husband that Scottsdale “wasn’t a good enough fit for us to leave Spokane.”
The search process in Nashville began on Jan. 14 and drew applicants from around the country.
With 82,000 students, Nashville is the second largest district in the state, behind the 119,000 in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
Redinger’s resume includes extensive teaching and administrative work in the eastern United States.
She was superintendent of Spotsylvania School District in Fredericksburg, Va.; principal of H.E. Corley Elementary in Irmo, S.C.; assistant principal of Conder Elementary in Columbia, S.C.; and teacher at Rice Creek Elementary in Columbia, S.C.
A Spokane native, Redinger also has worked in Sandy, Ore., and the Tri-Cities.
Redinger earned her B.A. and M. Ed. from Washington State University and her M. Ed. and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of South Carolina.
The other candidates in Nashville are Adrienne Battle, interim director of schools at Metro Nashville Public Schools; Brenda Elliott, chief of school improvement and supports and chief of equity at D.C. Public Schools; Brian Kingsley, chief academic officer at Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina; and Roderick Richmond, executive director of student support services at Shelby County Schools.
According to a release from the district, the search process includes interviews with each semifinalist candidate consisting of the same predetermined questions developed by the board members.
At the end of the process, each board member will list but not rank her top two choices on a written, and signed, ballot.
The candidate receiving the most votes may be invited to return for a second interview. This person will not be identified as the board’s first choice, but will become the board’s candidate of focus. The board will follow the same procedure with the remaining candidate, if necessary.