The superintendent of Scotland County Schools was named a finalist of the Jay Robinson Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to education.

Dr. Shirley Prince is one of three finalists for the award, which is named after the late chairman of the North Carolina Board of Education. The award is presented by teh Public School Forum of North Carolina, a nonprofit education policy think tank.

The forum chooses recipients based on leadership traits.

Other finalists are Dr. Dudley Flood, an education consultant and Dr. Neirl Pedersen, superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

In March, Prince announced she would retire from the school system July 1. She will take a job as executive director of the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principals Association.

Last summer, Prince was one of two finalists for the Guilford County superintendent's job. The position went to Maurice Green, former chief operating officer and deputy superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

In August 2006, Prince and the school board changed the county's only high school from a traditional system to a school divided into six smaller learning academies. Each has its own principal and teams of teachers. The change was met with some controversy. Critics said the new system compromised academic achievement.

But school officials argued the smaller academies were necessary to create a manageable system for the 2,000 student high school.