Phenix City Board of Education transfers superintendent’s authority to designee
The Phenix City Board of Education and Superintendent Janet Sherrod have taken another step toward her departure from the school system.
During a called meeting with one agenda item Tuesday night, the board without public discussion unanimously approved assistant superintendent Nathan Walters as the superintendent’s designee for an indefinite time period.
Florence Bellamy was the lone board member absent from the 6-0 vote.
“Due to her family health issues, Dr. Sherrod and the board have agreed to irrevocably transfer and assign all her duties, her responsibility and authorities as superintendent, to a person designated by the board,” Yolaunda Daniel, the board’s chairwoman, said during the meeting.
After the meeting, Daniel declined to comment on the board’s action.
The board announced Aug. 22 that Sherrod will retire Dec. 31, concluding a rocky relationship the board has had with the embattled superintendent since she was hired two years ago.
Who is Nathan Walters
According to his bio information listed on the website of the University of Alabama’s Superintendents Academy, where he is a 2025 cohort participant, Walters has more than 25 years of experience in education. He now is the PCS assistant superintendent for administration and operations.
Walters has worked in PCS as a teacher, reading coach, assistant principal, coordinator and director. He has overseen departments such as maintenance and operations, transportation, child nutrition, school safety, athletics, extracurricular programs, student health care, human resources and student services.
His community service includes being a member of the Russell County Juvenile Drug Court and teaching GED courses at the Boys & Girls Club.
After the meeting Tuesday night, Walters told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I’ve lived here my whole life, so it’s nice that I was designated as the superintendent’s designee. It’s an honor.”
Asked what he wants to tell folks who care about PCS, Walters said, “I really don’t have much at this time to say, just that we’ve got great students, we’ve got great teachers, and we’ve got a great community.”
Walters was among the four candidates the PCBOE publicly interviewed in April 2023 before hiring Sherrod.
Janet Sherrod’s arrival in Phenix City
Randy Wilkes ended his eight-year tenure as Phenix City Schools superintendent in June 2022, when he resigned to become the first superintendent of a new school district in Orange Beach. After a yearlong search, the PCBOE voted 4-3 in May 2023 to hire Sherrod from Tuscaloosa City Schools, where she was executive director of learning support.
During that meeting, the board emerged from a closed session of approximately 15 minutes and, without public discussion, appointed Sherrod in a split vote. Katrina Collier-Long made the motion, seconded by Elliott Patrick. Board chair Yolaunda Daniel and Florence Bellamy also voted yes. Brady Baird, KeAnthony Brooks and Jonathan Taylor voted no.
Job on the line
One year into her Phenix City tenure, rumblings about Sherrod’s job performance came to a head at a standing-room-only meeting July 1, 2024.
The board met in closed session for approximately an hour to discuss what was described as “pending or threatened litigation.” Then, following a contentious discussion in open session about two undisclosed personnel items (identified by only numbers), Taylor made an announcement when the agenda item titled “superintendent’s contract” came up.
“I asked this to be put on the agenda,” Taylor said. “And I’m requesting that, after further thought and consideration, this item be removed. We’re going to begin to strategize and set goals for Dr. Sherrod at our soon-to-be-scheduled retreat. The future is bright.”
The crowd applauded that news.
After the meeting, Taylor declined to specify to the Ledger-Enquirer any details about the dispute, citing what he said was advice from the board’s attorney, Bob Meadows.
The Ledger-Enquirer asked Sherrod for her reaction to the support as she was surrounded by well-wishers.
“My work speaks for itself,” she said.
Evaluations of Phenix City superintendent Janet Sherrod
According to the June 13, 2024, PCBOE meeting agenda, the board’s seven members rated the superintendent in 10 categories. On a scale of 1-4, their average rating was a 2 in all the categories, assessing Sherrod in:
- Being the CEO of the school board
- Educational leadership of the school system
- Personnel management
- Community relations
- Management of pupil and personnel services
- Communication, interpersonal relations and partnerships
- Professional development and leadership
- Technology management
- Facility management
- Financial management.
More than a year later, on July 17, the board’s second evaluation of Sherrod was presented. Her overall average score slipped to 1.7. But another evaluation of the superintendent presented during that meeting, this one from 17 of her direct reports in the administration, showed a different opinion. Sherrod’s overall average score from that assessment was a 2.9.
Current issue with Accelerated Academy
The current conflict between Sherrod and some board members is about the PCS Accelerated Academy, which invites the top 180 qualified students coming out of elementary school, starting in sixth grade, to take courses at higher grade levels after showing mastery of the content at their current grade level.
Baird told the Ledger-Enquirer last month that he and some other board members are upset with Sherrod’s “failure to effectively plan” for how the state’s curriculum changes would affect the the Accelerated Academy,
Despite the Alabama State Department of Education announcing its new curriculum standards “years and months prior to the changes being implemented,” Baird said, Sherrod didn’t provide the state proper documentation to continue the Accelerated Academy this year.
“Our system was completely unprepared to incorporate these changes into a program that has served academically motivated students and families for over 11 years,” Baird said, “and I cannot, for the life of me, understand how we would allow that to happen.”
Sherrod hasn’t replied to the Ledger-Enquirer’s requests to respond to that criticism.
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 7:22 PM.
