The four finalists for 2026 National Superintendent of the Year—the most prestigious award for superintendents—lead both urban and rural districts, where they’ve launched creative programs, improved academic results, and boosted transparency about district finances and student outcomes.
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, announced the finalists Dec. 15. The organization plans to name the winner at its annual conference in Nashville Feb. 12-14.
Here are some of the finalists’ successes:
Demetrus Liggins, Fayette County, Ky., schools
Liggins, who started his career as teacher for English learners, has led Kentucky’s second largest district since July 2021.
Liggins credits the district’s data-driven efforts for improved student achievement.
“For the first time in the history of Kentucky’s accountability system, not a single FCPS school was identified for low performance among Black, Latino, or economically disadvantaged students” in the last school year, the AASA announcement said.
Liggins has also launched a financial transparency dashboard to track district spending, increased teacher pay to the highest starting salaries in the state, and helped create a “portrait of a graduate” that details the skills the district wants to help students build.
Roosevelt Nivens, Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, Texas
Nivens began his career as a teacher in Dallas and has since served as a school administrator and superintendent. He has led the Lamar district, one of the fastest-growing school systems in Texas, since 2021.
The 49,000-student district’s enrollment has grown by 23% during Nivens’ tenure, and district population analyses predict continued rapid growth, thanks in part to a boom in local housing construction.
“The challenges facing our school districts right now are real,” Nivens said in a statement after he was selected as his state’s superintendent of the year. “Whether a district is large or small, growing fast, or working hard to sustain enrollment, the landscape of public education is changing.”
Voters passed a $1.95 billion package of three bond issues in November to pay for new schools, upgrade existing facilities, and purchase new technology.
Heather Perry, Gorham School Department, Maine
Perry, who started her career as an educational technician and middle school social studies teacher, has led her 2,800-student school system for 10 years.
Under Perry’s leadership, the Gorham district piloted a teacher-apprenticeship program that allows teacher-candidates to complete coursework while working in classrooms. That program inspired a statewide initiative meant to improve teacher retention and address educator shortages.
Sonja Santelises, Baltimore City Schools
Santelises has served as CEO of Baltimore City Schools since 2016, making her the longest-serving leader of the district in 79 years.
The 77,000-student district added 1,000 new students in 2024-25, bucking a trend of declining enrollment in urban districts nationwide.
The district’s students had the second largest growth in reading nationally since 2022 among large urban school districts, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress scores released in January 2025. The district is one of five urban school systems with higher reading scores than it had before the pandemic, an analysis by researchers at Harvard University and Stanford University found.
Finalists selected from states’ Superintendent of the Year winners
The four finalists were selected from state-level Superintendent of the Year winners. AASA evaluated nominees based on their leadership in academics, strength in communications, professionalism, and community involvement.
The winner will receive a $10,000 college scholarship presented in their name to a student in the high school from which they graduated.
