Dr. Eric Mackey beats out Pouncey, Murphy for state superintendent job

Dr. Eric Mackey has been selected as the new superintendent of Alabama schools.

The Alabama Board of Education voted Friday to name Dr. Eric Mackey the new superintendent of Alabama schools. Mackey, the executive director of the Superintendent Association of Alabama, was selected for the job out of four finalists.

Mackey received five votes from the nine-member board. Runner-up Dr. Craig Pouncey, the superintendent of Jefferson County Schools, received the remaining four votes. Hoover City Schools Superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy and former Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott did not receive any votes.

Pouncey had previously run for the position in 2016, when he also lost out on the position in a 5-4 vote. Dr. Michael Sentance won the position that time, though he resigned in September after months-long disagreements with the state school board.

Mackey had previously served as superintendent of Jacksonville, Alabama’s school system. According to his Superintendent Association of Alabama biography, his priority is that schools “must transform from an industrial model to one more attuned to the information age — one that is both challenging and highly interesting for students.”