As the superintendent of Jefferson County Schools in Birmingham, Ala., Walter Gonsoulin Jr. oversees 56 schools with 35,000 students in an area that’s roughly the size of Rhode Island. It’s the state’s second largest district, with a diverse student body.

Gonsoulin was ready for the task when he took on the job in 2020. He already had spent several years serving as deputy superintendent and interim superintendent. He dove right in, tackling challenges such as chronic absenteeism and spearheading changes in the school district’s zoning patterns to open up learning opportunities to students, regardless of where they lived.

“He is a visionary leader who provides a clear, innovative and strategic vision for improving educational opportunities for all students,” says Carita Venable, a board member for Jefferson County Schools.

For his ambitious leadership and achievements, Gonsoulin, 56, was named the 2025 Alabama State Superintendent of the Year and then, at the AASA National Conference on Education in New Orleans, the 2025 National Superintendent of the Year.  He’s the first Alabama educator to win the prestigious annual honor, first awarded in 1989. (The recognition program is co-sponsored today by Sourcewell, AASA’s government cooperative procurement partner, and Corebridge Financial.)

Promoting School Choice

As in many states, the debate about school choice picked up steam in Alabama in recent years. Gonsoulin noticed that the critics of public education usually left public schools out of the conversation about school choice, and it bothered him deeply. He wanted to prove that public schools—and his public schools in particular—could be a beneficial and rewarding choice for many families.

“It became our mission, our vision, to do so, to provide quality school choice that our families would be interested in,” he says.

Gonsoulin made his pitch at the Alabama legislature’s House Ways and Means Committee in 2024, leading to the legislature’s appropriation of $5 million to public schools for school choice. Jefferson County received $3.1 million of it, which the district will use for its magnet school program and to hire a magnet school director.

 “I challenged them to look at allowing us to compete for the money that funds school choice. All of us—home school, charter schools, public schools—should be in that competitive process, and then we have to show that we’re sustaining it,” he told a forum at the National Press Club in January. 

Under Gonsoulin’s leadership, the district consulted with families, students and experts before changing the school district’s zoning patterns to create four new directional zones. Each new zone contained several feeder school pathways, along with a Signature Academy at the high school.

Students can choose to attend an academy that matches their interests, regardless of where it’s located, and the district provides the transportation to make it possible. For example, the three Northern zone high schools contain a total of six signature programs: ACE – College Excellence, Agriscience Construction, Culinary Arts, Cybersecurity, Engineering, and Art – Special Effects. A student living in that zone could choose to apply to attend any of them, even if it’s not their geographically zoned school.

Plus Jefferson County’s elementary schools now have themes, too: arts, STEM and global leadership, among them.

“We wanted to make sure that a child’s ZIP code did not dictate that child’s educational experience, limit it or serve as barrier, just because of where they live,” says Gonsoulin, who grew up in New Iberia, La.

He was thrilled by the community’s response, having anticipated about 500 students would be interested in the inaugural program in 2022-23 year. But about 2,000 students signed up, and it’s been growing in the years since. “We would say it’s definitely working, and it’s because kids want to be there,” he says.

Craig Pouncey, who hired Gonsoulin in 2017 to be his deputy when he was Jefferson County’s superintendent, praises his successor for a clear-eyed commitment to ensure equal learning opportunities for all children. “He always is protective of a student’s rights,” says Pouncey.

Tackling Complexity

As with many successful administrators, Gonsoulin is willing to tackle multiple complex problems, all with the goal of improving the learning environment for students.

He’s been working to lower the district’s absenteeism rates—among teachers and students—by looking for the most effective ways to encourage them to come to school every day. The district hired an absenteeism coordinator in one of the feeder patterns with a particularly high student absenteeism rate. The efforts worked: In one middle school, the absenteeism rate dropped from 28 percent to 5 percent in a single year.

Meanwhile, the district has set a 95 percent attendance goal for its faculty, with incentives like prime parking spots to encourage teachers.

“It’s creating an environment where people begin to think and feel that they get to come to school as opposed to have to come school,” Gonsoulin says.

Thinking Beyond High School

Gonsoulin also has championed other ways to support students in following the paths that feel right for them—and gives them more opportunities after graduating.

The district began paying tuition for dual enrollment classes, which more than doubled the number of students to nearly 3,300 who completed postsecondary courses and enabled more students to graduate high school with an associate college degree.

“That gives them a head start,” he explains. “It helps them out financially and it helps them get enrolled in college and get scholarships as well.”

Gonsoulin takes personal pride in the district’s formal signing ceremonies for students, and not just those events for student athletes announcing their university destination. They invite future employers and universities to attend ceremonies to sign up students who graduate with a professional certificate or associate degree. 

“We want to continue to be innovative,” Gonsoulin says. “We want to continue to grow. But what we want most is for children to continue to succeed academically as well.”

According to Joe Knight, who serves on the Jefferson County Commission, students respect and even love Gonsoulin, which helps him succeed in his efforts. “He leads with his heart as opposed to a heavy hand and treats everyone as equals, not subordinates,” says Knight.

As for Gonsoulin, he says, “I don’t know if there’s anybody having as much fun as I’m having, getting to do what I do.”

(Jennifer Larson is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.)