Walker Stays at Hawthorne Through Clayton’s Principal Shuffle

The Clayton County Board of Education named Dr. Karisa Walker principal of Hawthorne Elementary on July 10, 2024, in a unanimous vote. The called meeting in Jonesboro lasted 32 minutes and also filled four assistant principal jobs.

Hawthorne’s own site still listed Walker as principal in October 2026, her third school year, while the district kept cycling other leaders and even its superintendent.

The Board Took 32 Minutes to Fill Five Jobs

Chair Dr. Jessie Goree called the session to order at 6:00 p.m. at 1058 Fifth Avenue. Members present were Vice Chair Benjamin Straker, Mary Baker, Mark Christmas, Joy Tellis Cooper, Dr. Deatrice Haney, Sabrina Hill, and Victoria Williams, with Superintendent Dr. Anthony W. Smith.

After a closed session on personnel, the board took Smith’s names in public. Baker moved the unanimous vote naming Walker principal of Hawthorne Elementary, and Straker seconded. The rest of the slate followed, each on a unanimous vote, and the meeting adjourned at 6:32 p.m.

THE JULY 10 VOTES

1. July 10, 2024, after 6:00 p.m.: Board approves Dr. Karisa Walker as principal of Hawthorne Elementary (Baker / Straker).
2. July 10, 2024: Board approves LaWanda Coats as assistant principal of Jonesboro High (Haney / Christmas).
3. July 10, 2024: Board approves Dwayne Boddie as assistant principal of Lovejoy High (Goree / Christmas).
4. July 10, 2024: Board approves Joel Mobley as assistant principal of Lovejoy High (Baker / Hill).
5. July 10, 2024: Board approves David Johnson as assistant principal of Morrow Middle (Tellis Cooper / Williams).
6. July 10, 2024, 6:32 p.m.: Meeting adjourns after a consent purchasing report.

Lovejoy High picked up two assistant principals in one night. The district posted video of the called meeting on its YouTube channel.

That 32-minute slate was not a one-off. Two weeks earlier, on June 24, 2024, Smith had already walked the board through another round of principal names, including East Clayton, Lee Street, Mt. Zion, Unidos Dual Language, and Forest Park Middle.

Who Karisa Walker Is

The minutes style her as Dr. Karisa Walker. Career listings give her a doctorate in instructional technology and distance education from Nova Southeastern University, with study dated 2008 to 2016, a master’s in instructional technology from Troy University, and a bachelor’s in early childhood education from Fort Valley State University.

She did not come in from outside the county. Georgia Department of Audits records show Karisa L. Walker, also listed as Karisa Lashawn Walker, as an instructional supervisor in Clayton from fiscal 2016 through 2018, then as an assistant principal. In fiscal 2022 the state recorded her assistant principal pay at $97,806.67. Earlier assistant principal figures were $92,057.99 in 2019 and $83,394.72 in 2020.

Before Clayton she taught in Henry County, including a Title I year, and her first listed public job was social service tech at Central State Hospital from 2003 to 2005. GovSalaries later tagged her as principal in both 2024 and 2025, which matches the July vote and the school site that still carries her name.

The district’s 2025-26 pay table puts elementary principals on grade 31, 225 days, from $86,894 at step 1 to $134,540 at step 16. Walker’s own principal paycheck is not in the public salary extracts used for this story.

On staff with her, Hawthorne’s current principal page names Dr. Attillah Brookshire and Ms. Nicole Tubner as assistant principals. Tubner already appeared in Clayton’s 2022 assistant principal ranks.

Hawthorne Still Posts 21% Math Proficiency

Hawthorne Elementary sits at 10750 English Road in Hampton, a fringe rural attendance zone in southern Clayton County. It runs Pre-K through fifth grade, uses the Hawks mascot, and keeps school hours of 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. The National Center for Education Statistics’ federal count of 804 students is for 2023-24, with 53 classroom teachers, a 15:1 ratio, and two full-time counselors.

Every child in the building is counted as economically disadvantaged. The racial count in that NCES year was 541 Black (67.3%), 197 Hispanic (24.5%), 39 two or more races (4.9%), 15 White (1.9%), 9 Asian (1.1%), 2 American Indian, and 1 Pacific Islander. Girls were 53% of enrollment.

On Georgia Milestones, 21% of Hawthorne students scored proficient or above in math and 19% in reading. The state figures were 39% in math and 40% in reading. Clayton County overall was 20% in math and 19% in reading, so Hawthorne sat a point above the district in math and even with it in reading.

HAWTHORNE AGAINST THE DISTRICT AND STATE

SchoolDigger, using 2024-25 Milestones, ranked Hawthorne 974th of 1,238 Georgia elementary schools, with an average standard score of 21.83. That placed it 15th among 37 ranked Clayton elementary schools and behind 78.7% of elementary schools statewide. A year earlier the same tracker had the school at 1,012th of 1,248, with a score of 19.59. The 2024-25 testing window was Walker’s first full year in the chair.

Students from Hawthorne usually move on to Eddie White Middle School and then Lovejoy High, the same high school that received two new assistant principals on the night Walker was named.

James Handed Over a High-Poverty School

Walker did not open a new building. She took over a school that Dr. Cynthia A. James had led through at least the close of 2022-23, when James hosted Smith for an end-of-year student panel in the Hawthorne cafeteria.

Greetings, I’m Dr. Cynthia A. James, the proud principal of Hawthorne Elementary School.

Dr. Cynthia A. James, then principal, 2022-23 close-out panel

Smith used that visit to thank James as the first Professional Agreement Spotlight recipient and to put student voice on camera. By July 2024 the board was voting Walker in. Public records do not spell out James’s last day, and the 2023-24 year sits between that spring panel and the July vote.

The job Walker inherited is the one the scores describe. A school of 804 children, all of them in poverty counts, posting math and reading proficiency about half the state rate, in a district of more than 52,000 students that ranks among Georgia’s six largest, with 39 elementary schools, 17 middle schools, and 12 high schools.

Clayton Keeps Naming Principals in Batches

Walker’s promotion fits a habit. Clayton’s board has spent the past several summers and fall sessions approving school leaders in groups, almost always on the superintendent’s recommendation and almost always by unanimous voice vote.

PRINCIPAL WAVES AROUND WALKER’S HIRE

• June 24, 2024: Board approves a slate that includes principals or acting principals at East Clayton, Lee Street, Mt. Zion, Unidos Dual Language, and Forest Park Middle, two weeks before Walker’s vote.
• July 10, 2024: Walker takes Hawthorne; four assistant principals land at Jonesboro High, Lovejoy High (two seats), and Morrow Middle.
• July 28, 2025: Board names Monica Ward principal of Oliver Elementary and several assistant principals across arts, middle, and primary campuses.
• Sept. 3, 2025: Board names Cynthia Freeman Smalls principal of Perry Career Academy and Francis Thomas principal of Church Street Elementary.
• Jan. 12, 2026: Board names Dr. Jacqueline Hunter principal of River’s Edge Elementary.

Smith, who put Walker’s name forward, did not finish the arc with her. The board placed Douglas Hendrix Sr. in the interim superintendent’s office on Feb. 2, 2026, after Smith left the post early. Hendrix was still in that role when he said Clayton’s 2026-27 year would open on Aug. 3.

District graduation, a high school measure, rose from 83% to 86.3% on the 2025 reports, a 3.3 point gain Smith tied to credit recovery, CTAE pathways, and wraparound work. That number does not describe Hawthorne. It does describe a system that can post a better high school finish line while its elementary proficiency stays near one in five.

Why a Third Year at Hawthorne Matters

A 2019 Learning Policy Institute study found that 35% of principals stayed at a school for less than two years and that only 11% lasted 10 years or longer, for a national average of about four years. Walker has now crossed the two-year line and started a third school year in the same building.

That is the part of this hire that no longer looks like the rest of Clayton’s list. East Clayton, Church Street, Oliver, River’s Edge, and Perry Career Academy all took new principals on later ballots. Hawthorne’s letterhead did not. The academic picture under that stability is still the 21% math and 19% reading proficiency, with a SchoolDigger score that moved 2.24 points, from 19.59 to 21.83, between 2024 and 2025.

Georgia’s statewide elementary Content Mastery score of 68.0 on the 2025 CCRPI is a different yardstick from raw proficiency, and it inched up 0.2 from 2024. Hawthorne does not have a published school-level CCRPI figure in the materials reviewed here. The Milestones shares and the 974th-place rank are the public record of how the building is doing in Walker’s tenure.

GreatSchools rates the campus 5 out of 10 and puts regular attendance at 76%, against 72% for the district and 78% for the state. The school posted a uniform policy on June 22, 2025, and the district later required clear bookbags. Literacy and Math Night was held March 17, 2026. For 2026-27 the campus named Kendra Gann teacher of the year.

Fall break at Hawthorne runs Oct. 12 through Oct. 16, 2026. When classes resume, the principal line on the school site is still Dr. Karisa Walker.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Hawthorne Elementary’s school hours?

Hawthorne runs from 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. The main office number is (770) 472-7669, and the campus is a regular Pre-K-5 school, not a charter or magnet, in a locale the federal directory labels rural, fringe.

What is Hawthorne Elementary’s federal school ID?

The National Center for Education Statistics lists Hawthorne as school ID 130123002246, with state ID GA-631-0199, in Clayton County district 1301230 (state district GA-631). Those codes are how state and federal score files attach test results to this campus rather than to other schools that share the Hawthorne name.

How much does Clayton County pay elementary principals?

The district’s 2025-26 salary table places elementary principals on grade 31 for a 225-day contract, from $86,894 at step 1 to $134,540 at step 16. Walker’s assistant principal pay was $97,806.67 in fiscal 2022; her principal salary is not in the public extracts reviewed for this story, so the grade 31 range is the posted scale, not her personal figure.

Does Hawthorne Elementary require uniforms?

The school posted Hawthorne Elementary School’s Uniform Policy on June 22, 2025, on its news board, and Clayton County later mandated clear bookbags in a June 18, 2026, notice. Families should use the current handbook, dated Aug. 4, 2026, for the rules that apply this year, because dress codes can be revised by the campus and the district.

Who are the counselors at Hawthorne Elementary?

Yolunda Miller serves first, third, and fifth grade, and Amelia Anderson serves Pre-K, kindergarten, second, and fourth. The staff directory lists 104 names, including those counselors, the two assistant principals, and classroom teachers across Pre-K through fifth grade.