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The Montgomery Public School system has a new superintendent, much to the chagrin of city and county leaders and a good chunk of the public.
Dr. Zickeyous Byrd was the Montgomery County School Board’s selection, picking up four votes on the seven-person board and edging out Harold Wright.
Byrd’s selection followed weeks of turmoil surrounding the search process and months of turmoil starting with the controversial resignation of former superintendent Melvin Brown. A slim, four-person majority on the board was blamed for both, with Mayor Steven Reed, County Commission Chairman Doug Singleton and Montgomery Chamber of Commerce President Anna Buckalew all voicing pointed criticism. They each recently asked that the search be restarted.
Buckalew told WSFA-TV after the meeting that she and the chamber would take an optimistic approach and that she hopes Byrd is successful. In a statement, Reed said he was disappointed that the board chose to move forward with the selection process.
“This moment called for unity, not urgency,” Reed said. “It called for collaboration with the broader community, not closed-door decisions. Our students, teachers, and families deserve a process that is transparent, inclusive, and focused on long-term success — not short-term optics. We’ve seen real progress in our school system. That progress was possible because we had leadership that engaged stakeholders and put students first. To rush this process is to risk reversing those gains. I remain committed to working with anyone who is truly invested in the success of Montgomery’s schools and the success of our young people.”
The turmoil deepened last week, after APR noted that Byrd had previously been caught up in a fraud scheme that landed several other educators in prison. While Byrd, who was superintendent in Conecuh County at the time, was never charged in the scheme, his district was forced to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulently obtained state dollars.
During Tuesday’s meeting, several board members expressed concern over both Byrd’s relationship to the scam and the fact that they were not made aware of his involvement by a search firm the district hired to conduct its search. A consultant with the search firm told the board that its background checks on candidates found that no candidates had “done anything illegal, unethical, had any charges on them ever.”
Board member Cassandra Brown said that wasn’t enough for her.
“I continue to have concerns with whatever process was used – background checks, Google search, or what have you – I did a Google search and didn’t even know what I was looking for based on an email, and that (Byrd’s involvement in the scam) popped up at the top,” Brown said. “The public has been concerned for a while and they have a reason to be concerned. I would have felt better had that been self-disclosed. I had a problem with the fact that I had to go and search for it.”
Other board members brushed the issue aside or decided to blame the messenger.
“What we’re seeing is sensational – I wouldn’t even call it reporting – it’s a smear campaign,” said board member Pamela Cloud, apparently upset with the U.S. Department of Justice, which put together the federal indictment that included the reported information.
APR’s report last week contained little new information and mostly quoted an 80-page federal indictment from 2021. That indictment outlined a scheme by several school officials to improperly enrich themselves and certain school districts by falsifying records and fraudulently claiming higher enrollments in virtual schools.
The scheme began in Athens City Schools, but it also ensnared Limestone and Conecuh counties. While the indictment never named Byrd, it did name “the Conecuh County Schools superintendent,” who was approached by others in the scheme and convinced to participate. It also noted that a Conecuh school official accompanied another individual on trips to private schools in which they sought to obtain student data in order to perpetuate the scam.
Montgomery board members told APR that they had only recently received information about Byrd’s connection to the scam from an email. APR reached out to Byrd in an effort to get clarification on his involvement and to answer questions about who from Conecuh went on those visits.
In a statement, Byrd said he and the district were victims and said he was not the person who went to the private schools. He declined to provide additional information.
