By Hannah Shiblaq | hshiblaq@alextimes.com
Jharett Bryantt, Ed.D., was appointed as the new superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools at the Alexandria City School Board’s Oct. 8 meeting. Bryantt, who joined the meeting virtually, will begin at ACPS on Feb. 1, 2027.
Bryantt told the Times he is “really excited about learning Alexandria.”
“This is not my first rodeo when it comes to being a new superintendent in a new community,” he added. “When I moved to Alaska, I didn’t know anyone. … I literally just had two suitcases and a hope that this was the right moment to make a difference for kids.”
Bryantt is currently the superintendent of the Anchorage School District in Alaska, where he has served since 2022 and will continue to do so until “early 2027,” he wrote in an Oct. 8 Facebook post.
Bryantt will replace acting Superintendent Grace Taylor, Ed.D., who assumed her current role in August following the resignation of Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt, Ed.D. Kay-Wyatt had served as superintendent since 2022.
“Over the coming months, the Board and division leadership will work to support an orderly transition and provide opportunities for Dr. Bryantt to become familiar with our schools and community,” Board Chair Christopher Harris said at the Oct. 8 meeting.
Bryantt confirmed to the Times that his final date as superintendent in Anchorage will be finalized this week, in conversations between himself and the Anchorage School Board.
“I have had the opportunity to learn from extraordinary students, educators, staff, families, community partners, and School Board members,” Bryantt wrote in the Facebook post. “I have watched people across this district navigate tremendous change while continuing to show up for students every day.”
Bryantt was selected through a national search conducted by the Alexandria City School Board with the support of executive search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, which specializes in education leadership, according to an Oct. 8 ACPS release.
“This process for [selecting] the superintendent of this division is always a challenging process,” Harris said at the Oct. 8 meeting. “… We had a lot of candidates that were well-qualified that did apply.”
Harris told the Times that ACPS received upward of 50 candidates for the position. This pool was then narrowed to 10 and then six before the three finalists were selected.
“He impressed the Board,” Harris said. “He’s young. He’s energetic and he brings something different. … We were very impressed by his two interviews, and he surfaced to the top.”
In the Facebook post, Bryantt wrote that during his tenure, Anchorage schools “strengthened [its] focus on early literacy and academic growth, helped more students catch up in reading, increased high school graduation rates, expanded college and career pathways through the Academies of Anchorage, and built stronger partnerships between our schools and community.”
Bryantt said one thing that drew him to Alexandria was its significant international population and diversity, noting that he wants to focus on ACPS’ English learners and special education students and making sure “our program reflects what our parents feel is going to move the needle for our children’s success.”
“It’s important to me that all of our students – whether you’re from a different country, whether you’re a lifelong Alexandrian – feel welcome and you have the trust and belief that when you enroll in our schools, the world is your oyster,” he told the Times.
The Anchorage School District faced a $90 million deficit during Bryantt’s tenure, resulting in his heading a “rightsizing plan” that included the closure of three elementary schools, the complete elimination of middle school sports and select high school sports and cuts to a total of 389 full-time school-based positions, according to a February story by KTUU, an NBC television affiliate in Anchorage.
The total amount of money saved from these cuts was projected to be $55.9 million. According to documents from Anchorage’s Joint School Board and Assembly Meeting on Sept. 18, the deficit was still estimated to be over $9 million even after the cuts were approved.
The cuts were controversial in Anchorage, with several community members arguing that the proposed school closures could harm students. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance echoed this sentiment.
“These cuts will be devastating, not just for families, students and educators, but to the future of our community,” LaFrance told the Anchorage School Board when they approved the cuts at a Feb. 25, 2025, meeting.
Bryantt told the Times that, within Alaska, there is a lot of “flat, unstable [and] unpredictable funding” which led to Anchorage School District’s sizable deficit.
“Overbalancing four-plus budgets within Anchorage School District, I’ve learned the value of having community conversations, where we start weighing pros and cons of trade-offs,” he said. “And there are no easy answers. … When we have shortfalls that usually are the result of funding not keeping up with the pace of inflation, … we have to make reductions that minimally impact the student experience.”
He insisted, however, that “Alexandria is not Anchorage.”
“We’re in a very different context,” he said, “and I’m going to [keep] community-specific feedback and context in mind when we develop our budget [for] ACPS.”
Bryantt will oversee significantly fewer schools and students at ACPS compared to Anchorage School District, with the former consisting of 18 schools and less than 16,000 students, and the latter of 90 schools and over 43,000 students, according to Anchorage Daily News.
“The really neat thing about Alexandria is our city is about 15 to 20 square miles, and to me, that’s an immense opportunity,” Bryantt said, adding that he will be able to get to know teachers on a first-name basis, visit schools more easily and monitor their activity regularly.
Bryantt will receive a $310,000 salary from ACPS, representing a 13.5% increase from his salary at Anchorage School District, which is $271,108 for the 2026-27 academic year, according to Anchorage School District’s preliminary budget. His contract will last four years and end on June 30, 2030.
Bryantt said he was drawn by Alexandria’s urban landscape, noting that, prior to serving as the Superintendent of Anchorage School District, he was executive officer and officer of talent for the Houston Independent School District – the largest public school system in Texas.
He said that while he has family on the East Coast and in the Washington, D.C., area more specifically, he also “realize[s] that this is a community which is going to be new” to him.
“There are things about our history [and] who we are as Alexandrians that I [have] to know,” he said. “And I want to understand, if you’re a parent choosing to put your child in ACPS schools, what does that mean to you?”
Bryantt holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University and master’s and doctoral degrees in education leadership and policy from The University of Texas at Austin, according to the press release announcing his hire.
He is also a graduate of the American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent Certification Program and earned a Certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. He has also been included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Education and The Culture 50 Champions.
“We have some big challenges and opportunities that we can tackle together, and, at the same time, we have strengths to build upon,” Bryantt said. “I just feel that this is a really great opportunity to really lead a strong, positive culture and to really get to know communities and for them to know me.”
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