New Montgomery Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Zickeyous Byrd sits down with Action 8 News

After about two months on the job, Montgomery Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Zickeyous Byrd sat down with Action 8 News to discuss his plans for improving the school system.

Byrd served as superintendent at Selma City Schools before being hired by the Montgomery County school board.

Since then, he has been visiting classrooms and learning about what is working and what is not from students, parents, teachers and faculty members as he prepares for his first school year.

“My top priorities are to improve the educational outcomes for all of our students. We’re also going to make sure that we address equity in all of our schools and across our district. And we’re also going to make sure, of course, within that we strengthen trust. We’re going to make sure, of course, within that we are improving trust within by being open, by being collaborative, by being transparent.”

Action 8 recently asked our viewers what questions they had for the new superintendent. One question is, “There’s been a pattern of turnover in the superintendent’s office. What are your plans to make sure you stick around long term?”

“We want to make sure that we actually start with our employees. I feel as though that we have some of the best employees across this state, and we want to make sure that our employees, that they feel valued, that they feel appreciated, of course, when they feel heard. And so during my listening tour, I’ve been focused on hearing directly from them, again about the great things that are going on, but also I wanted to learn how we can actually better support them. And so that’s what we’re focusing on right now, making sure that we provide them with the professional development that they’re asking for, making sure that we provide them with the resources that they’ve asked for.”

Another question from our viewers, “Some people blame administrators and the central office for issues in the schools. Do you plan to make some changes in those areas?”

“We’ve been making sure that we’ve been looking at all positions. Of course, we’ve been meeting with all of our leaders, all of our district office leaders, all of our school leaders. We’ve been, of course, with setting the expectations moving forward, and I believe, of course, winning that we have some great administrators that are dedicated to ensuring that we are actually providing our students with everything that they need, and so we are focused on providing them with the support that they need, and we are focused on moving forward together.”

A final question our viewers wanted answered, “What worked and didn’t work when you were superintendent in Selma City Schools? How did you learn from it and how will you apply that knowledge in Montgomery?”

“So one of the areas, of course, was addressing chronic absenteeism. We know, of course, and I want everyone to understand that we have to realize that chronic absenteeism is not just a school issue, but it’s also a community issue as well, because we have to think about it. If our students, if they are not engaged in school, then we have to ask ourselves, what are they engaged in? And most of the time, we find out that some students may be engaged in challenging behaviors.

“We have to make sure that we are involving our community leaders. We have to make sure again that we are involving our parents. We have to make sure that we are re-engaging our communities back into our schools.”

Dr. Byrd says he has met with the Chamber of Commerce, county commissioners, and city council members, but has not yet met with Mayor Steven Reed. He says he’s looking forward to talking to him when the mayor’s schedule clears up.

Dr. Byrd replaced Dr. Melvin Brown, who resigned in November 2024 after about two years on the job.