DAUGHTER OF ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS’ FIRST BLACK SUPERINTENDENT, DIED WEDNESDAY.
Susan Crim-McClendon, the principal of Woodson Park Academy and daughter of Atlanta Public Schools’ first black superintendent, passed in her sleep Wednesday night.
Crim-McClendon, 60, died “in her sleep last night,” wrote Superintendent Meria Carstarphen in a blog post Thursday.
Crim-McClendon was the daughter of former superintendent Alonzo Crim, who held the post from 1973 to 1988.
“I cannot begin to express what an incredible loss her passing brings to APS and the Woodson Park community. Dr. Crim-McClendon brought a great legacy and love for education to APS and this school. That love was instilled in her as a child of educator parents. Her father’s belief in a ‘Community of Believers’ and work toward the education of all Atlanta’s children directly informed his daughter’s work,” wrote Carstarphen.
APS hired Crim-McClendon as a teacher-leader in February 2010. The next year, she became principal of the former Woodson Primary, one of a couple dozen new principals tasked with giving Atlanta schools a fresh start amid a massive test-cheating scandal.
In 2016, the school board voted to merge Woodson with Grove Park Intermediate to create Woodson Park Academy, and she was named the school’s principal.
Crim-McClendon was remembered as a caring educator who looked out for students and their families.
Our condolences to her family.
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