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Nora Carr, who has spent more than five years as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' chief spokeswoman, was named chief of staff for Guilford County Superintendent Maurice Green on Thursday.
Until July, Carr and Green were colleagues; Green was CMS's deputy superintendent before he was hired for the top job in Greensboro. His administration is starting to look like a CMS alumni club: Carr replaces Eric Becoats, a former CMS planning director. Green plans to name Becoats to a new chief administrative officer's post, according to the (Greensboro) News & Record.
Carr came to CMS in 1999, as assistant superintendent for public information under former Superintendent Eric Smith. She already had a national reputation in school public relations – earlier that year she was one of four PR specialists called to Colorado to help with the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre.
When Smith took a job in Maryland in 2002, Carr took a job with Luquire George Andrews, a Charlotte public relations firm. She returned to CMS in 2005, serving a similar role for Interim Superintendent Frances Haithcock. When Peter Gorman was hired for the permanent post in 2006, Carr was the first person he named to his executive staff.
But one of Gorman's recent high-profile moves created some tension: He demoted Carr's husband, Kevin Carr, as part of a staff shakeup in May. Carr had been principal at Ranson Middle School; that was among seven schools where Gorman named new principals, saying scores were too low and progress too slow. Nora Carr was not involved in the publicity for that project.
She was recently named to the Public Relations Society of America College of Fellows, a national honor based on at least 20 years of leadership in public relations.
