After about three hours of second-round virtual interviews, in an executive session that began shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday and ended at about 1:45 p.m., the APS Board of Education chose Thomas Ahart, Mason Bellamy and Gabriella Durán Blakey as finalists for the APS superintendent post. 

  • Ahart, from Des Moines, Iowa, is the former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools and is now a consultant with the Council of the Great City Schools.
  • Bellamy, from Clarksville, Tennessee, currently serves as chief of academics and schools for Metro Nashville Public Schools and previously worked for the Clarksville Montgomery County School System.
  • Durán Blakey, of Albuquerque, is chief operations officer at APS and previously served as one of the district’s associate superintendents for leadership and learning.

The three were among four semi-finalists, including Channell Segura, and 20 other local and national educators vying for the position. The four semi-finalists were announced last week.

The board has scheduled a series of community forums for Jan. 30 to give the public an opportunity to meet and engage with Ahart, Bellamy, and Durán Blakey.

“The superintendent search process that started last year is very community-driven,” said APS Board of Education President Danielle Gonzales. “It began when we set our goals and guardrails based on what the community told us they wanted to see regarding student competencies, graduation expectations, district outreach, and collaboration with the community.” 

Anyone interested in submitting a question for the finalists can do so at this link before Jan. 26. Pre-screened questions will be presented to the finalists at the following public forums on Jan. 30 at the Berna Facio Professional Development Complex, 3315 Louisiana Blvd. NE.

  • 9 a.m. – noon: Public Town Hall featuring a student panel and pre-submitted questions for the superintendent finalists.
  • 5 – 5:45 p.m.:  APS Employee Forum, where finalists will be asked questions pre-submitted by teachers and staff.
  • 6 -8 p.m.: General Public Forum, where finalists will introduce themselves and answer pre-submitted questions.

The information gathered from these forums will help the board evaluate the candidates. All public events will be live-streamed on the APS Board of Education YouTube Channel. Live streamed events will be closed captioned through YouTube.