Bonnie Holliday goes to Georgia Charter Schools Association

The head of the Georgia agency that authorizes charter schools is leaving her job to join a charter school advocacy group.

On Monday, Bonnie Holliday, the longtime executive director of the State Charter Schools Commission, became executive vice president for policy and external relations at the Georgia Charer Schools Association, statements from both the Commission and the Association say.

The Commission approved 35 charter schools under Holliday’s tenure. The former high school English teacher earned a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, with a dissertation focused on charter school coalition building, the Commission statement says. Gov. Nathan Deal hired her to succeed Kathleen Mathers as executive director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, and the Commission subsequently hired her.

Both statements quote Association president and CEO Tony Roberts as saying Holliday’s primary work will be the “development and implementation of effective legislation and policies” for charter schools.

Holliday, who ran the Commission from the day it was established in 2013 under the authority of a constitutional amendment, says in the Association statement that she looks forward to “supporting charters in a new way.” She led the creation of a system for evaluating charter school performance as part of the charter renewal process.

Commission Deputy Director and General Counsel Gregg Stevens is the interim Commission leader during the search for a permanent successor.

About the Author

Ty Tagami

Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.

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