Spotlight On: Douglas Hendrix, Interim Superintendent & CEO, Clayton County Public Schools

Key points:

• • Clayton County is expanding career pathways through aviation, entrepreneurship, public safety, and AI programs.
• • The district is focused on responsible technology use and workforce readiness.
• • Hendrix says strong teachers, partnerships, and alignment are central to student success.

June 2026 — In an interview with Focus:, Douglas Hendrix, interim superintendent and CEO of Clayton County Public Schools, discussed workforce pathways, technology, teacher retention, and the district’s focus on coherence. “What matters most to us is making sure that we have students who can walk off the stage at graduation and into the life of their dreams,” Hendrix said.

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How has your perspective changed over the past year, and what trends are shaping your priorities today?

My perspective on public education has not changed. I still believe it is the greatest opportunity for students to meet their dreams and capitalize on what we have to give them so they can have a better life.

One trend shaping K-12 education is the growing emphasis on strategic communication, transparency, and real-time stakeholder engagement. Families and communities expect faster, more accessible, and more consistent communication than ever before.

Another significant trend is the increased integration of technology. Artificial intelligence and digital platforms, both in instruction and operational management, are becoming more pronounced. That includes cybersecurity awareness, digital learning environments, data-driven decision-making, and evolving compliance requirements.

We are also seeing a continued focus on workforce development. Fewer students are going to college, so our responsibility to create a workforce in every field of human endeavor becomes more important. There are also challenges with financing public education, so we have to become more creative to make sure every child gets a fair chance to have a great life.

What are you hearing from parents, teachers, and the community about what they want from their school system?

They want good schools. They want opportunities for their children. They want to make sure their children are in safe spaces where they are cared for. They also want great communication between schools and families.

More than anything, they want a sense of trust. If you add all of those things together, what you end up with is trust. That is our goal. We want to make sure there is mutual trust. We want to work with parents to create a shared vision, and then implement it together.

How is metro Atlanta’s growth shaping Clayton County Public Schools’ long-term priorities?

Schools and school districts went from trying to provide opportunities solely for children to get to college to having a greater focus, which is to provide every child with an education.

Our prior superintendent talked about the four E’s: enrollment, enlistment, entrepreneurship, and employment. We also added the three P’s, which are partnerships, pathways, and pipelines. Hopefully, they become paychecks.

We feel a great responsibility to form as many partnerships as possible with colleges, businesses, and anyone willing to come in and help us provide a life for our children, even if it is outside of college. Together, we can create pathways that give students opportunities to work when they finish school.

Our goal is to provide the skills needed for every field, whether that is college, a trade, entrepreneurship, enlistment, or the military. We want to make sure the school experience is the gateway to everything else.

Which career and technical programs are seeing strong demand, and how are partnerships helping prepare students?

Recently, five of our high schools received national certification for their Public Law and Safety pathway programs, which affirms the quality of our program implementation and student experiences. Additionally, one of our most notable programs is our aviation program at Morrow High School. It gives students an opportunity to become airplane pilots. In collaboration with Delta Air Lines and Middle Georgia State University, our high school students interested in aviation can receive scholarship money to help manifest their passion into reality.

We have students who, at a very young age, have decided they want to be pilots or work in the field of aeronautics, and they are working through this program. It demonstrates that we are trying to provide opportunities that are not the norm.

Junior Achievement is another opportunity because it supports entrepreneurship. Through our Junior Achievement Delta Discovery Center of Clayton County, children are being educated on financial literacy and business experience, where they can fail safely. If students can learn what it means to take out a loan, calculate overhead, and manage expenses in a safe space, then, instead of losing, they learn.

We also have other magnet programs throughout the district. Aviation stands out because we have simulators that students can use to become familiar with what it means to fly a plane. We want to create experiential learning opportunities where it is safe to fail.

How is the district approaching AI, technology, and digital learning while maintaining student engagement and critical thinking?

We do not want to simply take from technology. We want to guide it and use our brains to push it.

We have a written policy about AI to make sure we manage it correctly. We believe everybody is starting at ground zero with artificial intelligence, and we need to take advantage of the opportunities it presents. Artificial intelligence has to be part of what we are adding through Perry Career Academy and the opportunities we provide students. Students need to understand AI, not just how to use it, but also how to build and create with it.

Technology is everywhere. Our evaluations and tests are now done on platforms. Hiring and district operations happen through technology. Students deal with technology every day.

We also have a partnership with Colin Kaepernick through Lumi, an AI-powered literacy platform. Through Lumi, our students create multimodal content while strengthening their reading and writing skills. Students bring their own ideas, voices, and stories to life, using AI as a coach to deepen classroom learning through storytelling. What makes this experience powerful is that students are always the authors; they guide the technology rather than simply consume it.

How are you attracting and retaining strong educators across the district?

A school district is nothing without credible, qualified, caring, talented people in the teaching ranks. Research has shown for years that the No. 1 factor in a child’s learning is the teacher.

We understand that fewer people are going into education as a career field, which means we have to create teachers. When people come into our district as media specialists, paraprofessionals, or administrative assistants, we have programs that allow them to move into teaching at no cost to them.

As much as possible, every year I have the honor of sitting in this seat, I am going to try to find a way to increase pay for our teachers and other employees. They are valuable, and they have families as well.

We are also creating the Nexus Program. We have teachers we deem to be master teachers, meaning they are consistently able to move students to a higher place in their learning.

We want to pair them with people who are coming in with a lesser degree of certification and use technology to maximize their reach. That creates a leadership opportunity within teaching and reinstates the respect teachers should have. Teachers deserve respect. They create everything around us and every profession.

What are your top priorities and outlook for the next two to three years?

My general outlook is positive. Our goals will continue to be what they have been: to create great opportunities for our students in every field that we can.

As I took over, I realized there was a need for coherence. That is not oneness, but alignment of purpose. Leadership exists to solve problems in any organization.

In these first 90 days, we went into the community and listened. We heard what was good about our district and what needed improvement. Then we began to act with cross-functional teams working on issues and challenges.

We believe we will have the greatest start of a school year that we have had in a while in Clayton County because of coherence and because of the actions supporting that work.

Our priority is always to provide the highest-quality education for our students. That includes Tier 1 instruction, strong communication between home and school, financial stability, and qualified teachers in every classroom.

Our Early Literacy Initiative is also a priority because we understand that learning happens when children are young, and oral language is the genesis of all learning.

We also opened a new 8,500-seat arena. It is a workspace for our students and an opportunity for the community to engage locally. It holds opportunities like Junior Achievement, the Delta Discovery Center, and the Creator Studio.

What matters most to us is making sure that we have students who can walk off the stage at graduation and into the life of their dreams. We want them to leave knowing they received a strong education from people who truly cared about them and gave them a real opportunity.

Want more? Read the Focus: Atlanta report.