Prince George’s County names Dr. Shawn Joseph permanent schools chief

Prince George’s County gave Dr. Shawn Joseph the permanent job of running its public schools, but the real test now is whether he can keep teacher vacancies down, stabilize the budget and improve student results in Maryland’s second-largest district.

County Executive Aisha Braveboy announced the selection Monday, saying Joseph emerged from an extensive review and community feedback process. His appointment keeps him in the role he has held as interim superintendent since July 2025, after Millard House II left the job in June 2025. The choice still must clear the Prince George’s County Board of Education, and then the Maryland state superintendent, before Joseph can formally take over on a permanent basis.

The appointment carries outsized stakes. Prince George’s County Public Schools says it serves more than 136,500 students across 208 schools and centers and employs nearly 22,000 people. For families, that means every leadership decision ripples through classrooms from Upper Marlboro to Largo, from hiring and transportation to school safety, special education, and the county’s ability to meet academic targets.

Joseph is not stepping into the district as a stranger. He previously served as deputy superintendent for teaching and learning from 2014 to 2016, after spending 16 years in Montgomery County Public Schools as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and district administrator. He also worked in Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee and the Seaford School District in Delaware. That background helped frame him as a steady hand for a system that has spent the last year searching for stability.

Braveboy pointed to one of the clearest metrics under Joseph’s interim tenure: teacher vacancies were cut by 52% in one year, a sign that recruitment and hiring efforts have started to move the needle. That matters in Prince George’s because staffing gaps directly affect class sizes, course offerings and turnover at schools already under pressure to keep instruction consistent.

Joseph’s 100-day entry plan lays out the agenda he will now be judged on. The six focus areas are strategic alignment, talent, academics, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, community engagement and operations. Those priorities are broad, but the benchmarks are concrete: fewer vacancies, stronger achievement, better execution of state reform requirements and more trust from parents, teachers and taxpayers after a long search and a year of transition.

Under Maryland Education Article § 4-201.1, the county executive selects the superintendent and the county board appoints that leader after contract terms are agreed to. With Joseph now in line for the permanent post, Prince George’s County has shifted from search mode to accountability mode, and the next year will show whether the district can turn a leadership change into measurable improvement.