Fulton County schools name new superintendent

ATLANTA - John Haro, a superintendent in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, has been tapped to take over Fulton County schools. <br> <br> The Fulton school board introduced the 52-year-old Haro yesterday and ferried him to meetings principals, parents and business leaders. <br> <br> The move will not be official for about two weeks, when the board is expected to take a formal vote. <br> <br> For the last decade, Haro has been superintendent of 28,000-student Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district. The affluent system is 87 percent white and has test scores well above national and state averages. <br> <br> The Fulton County district has 71,000 students, split by the city of Atlanta into two distinct areas: predominantly white, affluent north Fulton, and largely black south Fulton. <br> <br> School board members said they expect Haro to make a dent in the achievement gap between the two halves. A question-and-answer session yesterday at Tri-Cities High School in East Point was dominated by parents wanting to know how Haro will address the issue. <br> <br> Fulton&#39;s new leader says he must first get to know the school system and the community before proposing changes. <br> <br> But he did say, ``I hope one day we&#39;ll quit talking about north and south and be one united district. I&#39;ll work to break down the barrier and be one great district.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Haro follows Stephen Dolinger, who resigned in June after seven years as Fulton superintendent. Dolinger is now president of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence, a nonprofit advocacy group.

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