What we know and don’t know about JCPS’ finalists for superintendent

The Jefferson County Board of Education is on the verge of making a momentous decision for the 96,000 students of Kentucky’s largest school district: choosing its next leader. Board members and their selection committee narrowed the search to two finalists, both of whom, board members say, have track records of boosting academic achievement.

Finalist Ben Shuldiner, superintendent of the Lansing School District in Michigan, oversees a school system of 10,000 students. And finalist H. Brian Yearwood previously led Columbia Public Schools in Missouri, a school system of 19,000 students.

When it comes to boosting educational outcomes, both candidates have led districts that reported recent significant growth. And both come from districts with similar demographics to JCPS – racially diverse school systems with high poverty.

Both candidates declined interview requests. Reached by phone, Yearwood said he could not speak while the hiring process was still underway. An emailed request to Shuldiner was forwarded to a Lansing School District spokesperson, who said Shuldiner could not comment while the hiring process plays out.

KyCIR spent the last week scouring education data and combing through decades of press reports to learn more.

Here’s what we found out about the candidates. Scroll to the bottom to find each finalists’ full application materials, obtained by KyCIR through the Kentucky Open Records Act.

In the last year under the leadership of H. Brian Yearwood, Columbia Public Schools moved into the top 20% of all Missouri school districts after its score on a state school grading system increased by 16.4 percentage points. According to Missouri state data, the district’s overall score went up due to increased attendance, better scores in English Language Arts and math, and an improved graduate rate in the 2023-2024 school year.

According to Yearwood’s resume, CPS boasted the 4th-best year-over-year growth in the state.

Missouri data shows that, overall, 40% of CPS students scored proficient or higher in math on state tests in 2024 and 44.5% of students hit the mark in English Language Arts.

The 2024 boost followed two years under Yearwood of low, but rising, attendance, one year of stagnant state ratings and a slight drop in the graduation rate in 2023. CPS’ four-year graduation rate rose back up in 2024 to around 90%.

According to local media coverage, over Yearwood’s tenure the district added several days of professional development for teachers, standardized and improved curriculum and started new initiatives to make school more engaging, such as an 8,000 sq. ft. nature school with classrooms, a lab for hands-on learning, and a kitchen for learning to prepare native foods.

In his resume, Yearwood counts those initiatives among his achievements, along with the passage of an $80 million bond issue to fund school construction and the creation of a district-run health clinic for students.

In the Lansing School District in Michigan, students had some academic gains under the tenure of finalist Ben Shuldiner. On his application, Shuldiner touted the results of a study by Stanford University which found that Lansing students had the highest growth in reading scores of any district in the state from 2022 to 2024. Overall, however, the district’s test scores fall far behind the rest of the state’s.

According to Michigan state assessments, a different measure, LSD saw improvement in 4th grade reading and math scores when Shuldiner took over after a drop in scores during the Covid-19 pandemic. But three years later, scores in Lansing are still very low: 13.6% of LSD fourth graders tested proficient or better in math last year, and 22% tested proficient or better in reading. For comparison, in JCPS last year 38% of fourth graders tested proficient or better on reading on Kentucky state tests, and 31% tested proficient or better in math.

Middle school scores are even lower in Lansing. Fewer than 8% of middle school students tested proficient or better in math. Those scores have remained relatively stagnant since Shuldiner took the helm. The one bright spot in middle school is 8th grade reading, which saw proficiency rates increase from about 25% in 2019 to about 38% under Shuldiner’s leadership. Test scores for grades 3-8 are not available in Michigan between 2020 and 2021.

High school reading and writing scores stayed relatively stable over Shuldiner’s three years at the helm, with about a quarter of the high school juniors tested scoring proficient last year. Just 6% of the high school juniors tested in math were proficient or better.

JCPS

The most significant gains under Shuldiner were in the four-year graduation rate, which grew from 62% in 2021 when Shuldiner joined the district, to 88% in 2024. In local media reports, Shuldiner attributed the growth to “full-time graduation specialists” who keep tabs on students who are behind on credits. Under Shuldiner, LSD also started a credit-recovery weekend at a nature reserve with time for outdoor activities and online programs to make up for failed or missing classes students need to graduate

Shuldiner counts among his accomplishments the opening of a new technical high school, a universal Pre-K program, and the development of Lansing’s first “Newcomer Center” with 80 students who arrived recently from foreign countries.

For both finalists, the elephant in the room is that they made their mark in school systems a fraction the size of JCPS.

That didn’t bother members of the Jefferson County Board of Education members who spoke with KyCIR.

District 2 board member Tricia Lister said while Yearwood and Shuldiner’s districts were smaller, they had comparable demographics and operational challenges.

“So they have to scale up, for sure, but the issues are very similar,” Lister said.

“Dr. Pollio had no district experience,” JCBE Chair Corrie Shull told KyCIR, referring to current JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio, who was promoted to the district’s top post after a career as a teacher, principal, and brief stint as interim superintendent.

Lister said the board had other applicants from districts that were from districts as large or larger than JCPS.

One major concern for many in the community is the secrecy around Yearwood’s abrupt departure from his Missouri district at the end of last year. Jefferson County Board of Education members who spoke with KyCIR said they don’t know why their finalist left his previous position and was sent off under a nondisclosure agreement with a $667,000 buyout.

Columbia Public Schools’ board unanimously renewed Yearwood’s contract for three years in February 2024. Then months later, in November, Yearwood announced his retirement saying he wanted to move back to Texas to be closer to family. Later however, he was announced as a finalist in superintendent searches in Delaware, Kansas, Michigan and now Kentucky.

District 7 board member Taylor Everett told KyCIR that during Yearwood’s interview, board members asked if Yearwood could tell them anything more about his departure from CPS, but the candidate told them he could not, due to the nondisclosure agreement he signed.

“Honestly, we know as much as everybody else does,” Everett said. “We're trying to trust the search firm as much as we can that they do a background check, they do their due diligence, they have people on the ground so that he would not be presented if he was not eligible and would not be good at the job.”

KyCIR’s requests for interviews with current and former board members of CPS went unanswered, as did requests to leadership of the CPS teachers’ union and various teachers and administrators.

Yearwood himself declined to comment when reached by phone, citing the nondisclosure clause.

JCPS

Yearwood’s separation agreement does not bind the CPS board from speaking about his departure, but Lister said she believes CPS board members cannot share what they know because those discussions occurred during a closed session of their board meeting.

She said she talked to Yearwood’s references and several members of the Columbia school board and they would not tell her why Yearwood left, but assured her “that there was nothing illegal and nothing financial.”

Lister said she believed he was forced out over political reasons.

“I don't think we need to be suspicious of him. And I'm afraid that people are very suspicious of him because people are more willing to be suspicious of Black people,” she said.

If selected, Yearwood would be JCPS’s first Black superintendent in its almost 50-year history.

Shull said Yearwood’s departure doesn’t give him pause.

“Particularly because of his outstanding success with improving academic outcomes, his demonstrated ability to manage HR issues and his financial background,” he said.

Shuldiner recently faced public criticism over a $250,000 contract LSD signed with GreenLink, an electric bus company where Shuldiner has personal connections. GreenLink’s executives provided letters of recommendation for Shuldiner in his unsuccessful bid in March to run Clark County Public Schools in Las Vegas.

LSD board member Keturah Bouyer asked about the relationship between Shuldiner and one of the GreenLink executives during a public board meeting last month. The board then went into a three-hour closed session without Shuldiner. When they emerged, Bouyer made a public apology for asking about the relationship, according to the Lansing State Journal.

During the meeting Shuldiner said he had disclosed his connections with the bus company executives before and said he was “hurt” by Bouyer’s questions, according to another Lansing State Journal report.

In his application for JCPS, two of Shuldiner’s three references are executives at GreenLink.

Whoever takes the helm of JCPS will have to grapple with the sticky dilemma of transporting tens of thousands of students without enough drivers. It’s a challenge both finalists have dealt with in their own districts, according to local media reports — though neither at the scale of JCPS.

In Lansing, the school district contracts with a private company for 41 yellow buses to transport elementary and middle school students. In 2022, the district reportedly cut transportation for all high school students due to a driver shortage. In lieu of a school bus, Lansing high schoolers receive a pass for unlimited public transportation or a $50 monthly gas card.

Columbia Public Schools has contracted with private companies to provide transportation for at least 10 years. The contractor provides around 200 drivers who staff 138 routes. Like in JCPS, CPS families have dealt with delays and canceled routes due to driver shortages in recent years.

Shull said Yearwood impressed with his understanding of finance, budgeting and operations. Before he went to Missouri, Yearwood was the Chief Operations Officer of Manor Independent School District, a school system of around 10,000 students near Austin, Tx. Before that he was Manor ISD’s Assistant Superintendent for Academics and Accountability.

Shuldiner’s three-year stint on the board of education for New York City Public Schools gave Shull confidence he could find his footing managing operations for JCPS. Shuldiner, who has roots in Manhattan, was appointed to the school board in 2015 by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Board members say both finalists were selected in part because of their track records working with diverse populations.

During his tenure, Yearwood backed initiatives to hire more teachers of color, expand curriculum on African American history and support LGBTQ+ students — often bringing him into clashes with Missouri’s conservative state legislature.

In 2021, one Republican state lawmaker called on Yearwood to resign after the CPS board of education approved using the 1619 Project in curriculum, a work of journalism that explores the legacy of slavery in the U.S.

Later in 2021, two CPS schools removed Black Lives Matter signs and LGBTQ+ pride displays after pressure from parents, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. A CPS spokesperson told the Tribune said the displays did not meet “existing policies and procedures.”

In 2023 Yearwood defended the district’s decision to take 30 CPS students to a diversity celebration. Some Republicans were outraged that the event included a drag performance and threatened legal action. Yearwood stood by the event, saying concerns were based on “misinformation.” Later however, he agreed to review the district’s permission slip policy.

In Lansing, the school board made Juneteenth an official district holiday under Shuldiner’s leadership last year.

Like JCPS, and most other school systems across the country, both districts have disproportionate suspension rates for Black students. An audit released in 2022 found Black students in LSD were twice as likely to be suspended as their white peers. That same external audit also found LSD lacked culturally responsive teaching.

In Missouri, a 2024 report from the Columbia Missourian found that of all CPS’ suspensions in the 2022-2023 school year, more than half were Black students, and almost three-quarters were low income. CPS’s student population is 20% Black and 40% low income.

The school board will host two public forums next week before making their pick.

Forum 1: May 20, 2025 (Will be livestreamed and in-person)

4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

JCPS Center for Professional Learning

3903 Atkinson Square Dr.

Louisville, Ky. 40218

Forum 2: May 20, 2025 (In-person only)

7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Stopher Elementary

14417 Aiken Rd.

Louisville, Ky. 40245