Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) appointed Tricia McManus as the new Superintendent. Her first official day in the new role was on Feb. 24th, 2021. 

McManus has a great deal of experience. She was the Assistant Superintendent for Leadership and Professional Development, and School Transformation in the Hillsborough County Schools in Florida since 2016. She also served as Director and Executive director of that district’s leadership development for five years. 

She has proven to turn around underperforming schools as principal and assistant superintendent. She also served in various roles before coming into this position such as; an elementary school teacher, elementary school assistant principal, and then principal.

Superintendent is an important role in our county and in every county, besides teachers and staff members of schools. Students don’t necessarily know the importance of a superintendent or what they do for us. 

Superintendent is an elected role, so it can change every few years. Superintendents are elected by each county’s education board members. The board of education is the superintendent’s boss and monitors their daily operations. 

Superintendents are responsible for the management of the schools, the administration of all school board policies, and are directly accountable to the school board. The superintendent must annually evaluate each principal for how they are supervising a school building in the district.

Before McManus was officially the Superintendent she was the Interim Superintendent from Nov. 2020 until Feb. 2021.

Before McManus came into the position, Dr. Angela Pringle Hariston was the superintendent for a short period of time before resigning recently. She was the first African American in our district’s history to hold the position. 

¨I am extremely excited about Mrs. McManus,” said principal Brad Royal. “She is student-centered in all of her actions and utilizes the emphasis on what is best for students to help navigate our school system’s path forward.  She is very approachable and listens to others.  I honestly believe that she is the perfect person to lead to our school system.¨ 

The board of education chooses candidates by reviewing hundreds of application resumes. The process starts off with more than 40 candidates. They do background checks, look at college information, conduct interviews and look at previous job experiences. 

The number of candidates is eventually narrowed down to six and then the board conducts more evaluations. They listen to the people of the district and then appoint a new superintendent. 

“I am really excited to be given the opportunity to continue leading the district,” McManus said according to WFMY 2 writer Carrie Hodgin. “This means the work of improving our underperforming schools, increasing literacy outcomes, improving kindergarten readiness, and focusing on recruitment and retention of high-performing staff can continue. In addition, we can move full speed ahead toward implementing the equity-driven components of our strategic plan so that every student experiences a high-quality education in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.”

McManus has been the superintendent for some weeks now. The administration and staff are looking forward to her leadership. 

“It’s an honor to work with all of the educators throughout the district and our committed community to transform the educational experience we provide and the outcomes we achieve for

every one of our students,” McManus says according to WFFD. “I’m deeply committed to working with you all to meet the goals set forth in our strategic plan, and I have no doubt we can do this.”