Newton County School System superintendent Gary Mathews announced today that Executive Director for Elementary Education Ken Proctor will be leaving the district to take a job in the Atlanta Public Schools.

Effective April 16, Proctor will take over as the Assistant Superintendent for School Improvement & Leadership Development at APS.

"It is with mixed feelings-sad and glad for him-that I inform you of the impending departure of Dr. Ken Proctor, our Executive Director for Elementary Education," Mathews said in a press release.

Proctor took his first administrative job in 2004 at the Georgia Department of Education and worked two years as the Reading First Program Manager and State Director. In 2006, he was appointed Director of Elementary Education for the NCSS by then superintendent Steve Whatley. Proctor served in that role until July 2011 when he was promoted to executive director.

Mathews said the decision to appoint Proctor's successor will come after speaking with the Board of Education. His recommendation would have to go to the board for approval with at least three of the five district members concurring.

"Going forward, I do have a plan of action that I will seek our own board's approval for in the near future and in time to take effect on the same day Dr. Proctor begins in Atlanta," Mathews said. "In short, I do not wish for our own managerial efforts to linger keeping everyone [unnecessarily] up in the air as to our immediate and long-term leadership in the Division of Curriculum & Instruction."

Proctor received his doctorate of education from Valdosta State before working his way to principal in the Ware County School System. He served as an elementary principal at four schools - two in Ware County and two in Henry County, before entering administration. Proctor's last day will be April 13. The new director will assume duties the following Monday.

"I want to extend my very best wishes and thank you to Dr. Proctor for his years of service to the children of the Newton County School System," Mathews said. "His work has positively mattered."