Virginia has a new superintendent of public instruction, current Chesterfield County superintendent James Layne. Governor Ralph Northam made the announcement in Richmond Thursday.
Layne has been superintendent in three Virginia counties: Chesterfield, Goochland, and Middlesex. In 2017, he was named superintendent of the year.
“What I’ve been fortunate to do is work in large and small school divisions,” Layne said to reporters after the announcement. “And when you work in a small school division you learn literally every job, from how to work with the transportation department to all the instructional things that are necessary. And then working in a large school division you learn how to really take amazing programs and put them on scale by building great teams.”
Layne will have his work cut out for him. He’ll oversee all 135 school divisions, plus the state is in the middle of implementing new standards of accreditation and graduation requirements.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
