The crowd that turned out for a listening session on the desired characteristics of the next superintendent of Oconee County Schools on Wednesday night came well prepared to pass along insights to the Oconee County Board of Education.
They also clearly were pleased to have a chance to talk about the topic.
The most common characteristics desired of a superintendent, asked for repeatedly during the 75-minute-long session, were transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness to comments from parents and other citizens.
Retired University of Georgia Professor Margaret Holt, chosen by program organizer Community Works Oconee to moderate the session, had directed the 22 persons in the room to focus on three things in making their comments.
These were the characteristics and qualifications that a the new superintendent should have, the questions the Board should ask of the candidates, and what issues the new superintendent should prioritize
None of the five Board members attended the session, though organizer Ann Hollifield said all had been invited. Board Chair Michael Ransom never acknowledged the invitation, Hollifield said, while the others said they had other obligations.
Hollifield said that Community Works Oconee will make a report to the Board on the comments made at the listening session, held at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park.
Oconee County Post 1 Commissioner Mark Thomas, who had served on the School Board before being elected to the Commission in 2016, did attend.
Time Line Leading To Listening Session
Community Works Oconee, which grew out of a desire on the part of the Oconee County Democratic Party to develop a nonpartisan community service organization, announced on May 9 that it would hold a listening session to allow community members to provide input on the superintendent search.
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| Holt 5/28/2025 |
Superintendent Jason Branch announced his decision to retire on April 14, effective June 30.
On May 5, the Board approved a contract with search agency Georgia Leadership Associates (GLA) of Folkston to assist in finding a replacement for Branch.
GLA said it would seek community input after the Board had decided on the profile of the superintendent it wanted to hire. GLA placed a 32-item opt-in questionnaire on the Oconee County Schools web site on May 21.
The questionnaire asks respondents to indicate how important a series of characteristics of a new superintendent are to the respondents.
Included are such things as a “Willingness to make difficult decisions,” “Projects an image of professionalism and polish,” “Strong work ethic,” and “Knowledge and experience with student safety.”
The questionnaire does not allow for any open-ended comments by the respondents.
In the campaign last year for Post 4 on the School Board, Adam Hammond had said he wanted the Board to start holding Town Hall Meetings, and Ransom and Board Member Toole, both also running for election on the November ballot, said they also favored holding Town Hall meetings.
The Board has never followed up on that proposal.
First Speaker
Sarah Danis, the first to speak on Wednesday evening, said she had looked at the GLA survey and “I remember when I took it chuckling a little bit because it felt not very informative. There was no place to give comments and things like that.”
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| Danis 5/28/2025 |
“I felt like they (the items) were all very, very important,” she said, “But it didn't feel like they were really getting a lot of information from me.”
“So characteristics and qualifications,” Danis said, referring to the questions posed by Holt. “Being honest and transparent. That's a big one.”
One of her children is in Oconee County Elementary School, she said.
“I'm sure a lot of you are aware that there have been issues--potential mold and mildew issues--that, all we want to know is, Is there really an issue? All we've asked for at meetings...is can we just have someone who, this is their job--not people within the school system that have been promoted and aren't necessarily experts in this matter--to come forward and to say, is there an issue or not?”
“So being honest and transparent is important,” she said.
“And that leads me to number two, about the questions,” she said, referring to Holt’s second question.
“Right now, teachers are fearful of coming forward with their concerns because they have seen what has happened to other teachers,” she said.
“That would be the question that I would ask,” she said, “Would teachers be fearful to approach you when they have concerns?”
“So the issues that I think should be prioritized,” she said, referring to the third question Holt posed. “Transparency, communication, just being approachable.”
More On Oconee Elementary
Mandy Moreira, who is the President of the Parent Teacher Organization at Oconee County Elementary School, was the next to speak.
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| Moreira 5/28/2025 |
Moreira, along with Danis, have spoken at the Board of Education about the possibility of mold at the school, and Moreira returned to that topic on Wednesday.
“I'm in the school all the time,” she said. “Like weekly doing stuff, volunteering, being very involved in the classrooms. I'm all over the school, so I hate to say it, but when things happen and there's things coming up, like it comes down the pipe to me.”
“I don't work for the school system,” she said. “They don't pay me. So I've kind of been someone that's been channeling the issues as well.”
“And that comes to the mold at the school,” she said. “And the lack of honesty and transparency we've been getting.”
“Qualifications definitely are connecting with the community,” she said. “Speaking back, maybe make a phone call, something, be personal. We don’t live in LA, where there’s gazillions of kids. We’re still a small community and county.”
Moreira said she would like the School Board to ask the candidates for superintendent: “How do you address these concerns from parents?”
Another “great question” she said the Board should ask: “Are you all working for him, or is he working for you all?”
Three Areas Of Responsibility
Kara Fresk, whose has a child in Oconee Elementary School, said she is an organizational effectiveness consultant and she works with lots of organizations of the size of Oconee County Schools.
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| Fresk 5/28/2025 |
“There's three main responsibilities or primary responsibilities of leaders,” she said. “That is vision, delivery, and people.”
“I would be looking for characteristics that exemplify those three areas,” she said. “Qualifications, experiences that show that.”
She said she would want the Board to ask the candidates, “of those three, what tends to be their focus, or their skill set tends to reside in?”
“Is it in the people area, the vision area or the delivery area? Which one do they find to be their area that could use a little bit more work? Their area for growth or their opportunity. And what would they do in order to really live into that, that area if it's not their strength?” Fresk said.
“So, short and simple for me,” she said. “I really think about it through that threefold framework and would want to know, kind of their experiences within each of those three spaces, along with what they would do to really amplify the area that is not their strong suit.”
Teacher’s Acronym
Randall Brown, who said he taught at Oconee County Middle School but has been retired for five years, began his comments by saying “I'm thankful for the committee, for the group that is, is doing this to make an opportunity for people to speak.”
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| Brown 5/28/2025 |
“I think it's important for people to have a voice, especially about something as important as our children and our school system and the leadership of our school system,” he said.
“As a teacher, I like to make acronyms,” so my acronym was CHILD.”
“C is character,” he said. “We want someone who has a proven track record of having good character and being above reproach.”
The H is from honesty, he said, “making sure everything on their resume has been checked for accuracy.”
The I is for integrity, he said. Is the applicant “willing to do the right thing for the school system, even when there are social, economic or political pressures that challenge their resolve?”
The L is for “leadership, getting to know the people they serve, listening to teachers, through principals or a suggestion box, to find out what they need,” Brown said.
D stand for daring, he said, “challenging some of the norms that have gotten into education, dealing more specifically with student apathy and also discipline, how discipline is done.”
Another PTO President
Jenny Huff, who is PTO president at High Shoals Elementary School, said “We need a superintendent that knows that they don't know everything and they're willing to listen to other people's ideas.”
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| Huff 5/28/2025 |
“I feel personally right now that if you were to go to our current superintendent and tell him that something isn't right, that there's a better way to do something, that you just get shut down. There is no listening.”
“Oconee County does a great job with educating our top kids,” she said. “We all know this. We get the best scores, the highest scores. They go to the best schools. They get the best jobs.”
“But we really need to focus on now, because we do have that on lockdown,” she said. “What we need to focus on now is educating and helping those kids that need a little extra.”
“Transparency and standards, specifically with discipline,” Huff said. “We need a little more direction in our handbook–than 'at the discretion of the principal’,” she said.
“All I'm looking for is a conversation on transparency and standards when it comes specifically to discipline,” she said.
Conversation Evolves
After Huff spoke, the session changed to a conversation, with several people adding comments.
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| Davis 5/28/2025 |
“It's almost like a systemic disconnect between the administration, the School Board, even the local school level administration, and the teacher/parents,” Huff said.
“So one of my questions would be, do you recognize that you work for the Board of Education, right?” Danis said.
“The superintendent is supposed to work for the Board,” she said, “even though that is not how it feels now.”
Danis said she had been a parent asking for implementation of the School Resource Office Program last year and she would like the Board “to affirm that the new superintendent plans to continue with all of the plans with the SRO program.”
“I would really like for a nationwide search to be done, and a proven superintendent with a history of transparency and all the things that you have talked about as parents,” Pam Davis said.
“So my question is,” she said, “How could you justify promoting from within?”
More Back And Forth
Eric Gisler said he wants a superintendent with a leadership style that was “more collaborative and more empowering to their principles.” He said he would ask the Board to ask the candidates about their leadership style to that end.
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| Chatfield 5/28/2025 |
Hollifield, one of the organizers of the listening session, said she wanted to speak for the two-thirds of the people in the community who do not have children in the schools.
She said she wanted the Board to ask candidates: “How are you going to communicate with the majority of people who are paying your bills and your salary, and how are you going to change the school system in a way that the schools serves more of the community?”
Sarah Chatfield said she hopes the Board would ask questions to make sure the candidates “understand that everything rests on your teachers. And so value them as your number one asset.”
“So that would be a question about valuing the teachers and the staff above all, really,” she said.
Ray Smith said “a major qualification that I would like to see in a superintendent is that they have significant teaching experience.”
More On Internal Vs. External Candidates
“Going back to the question about hiring from within,” Brown said, “I do also see that you can get a perspective from someone who's coming in fresh and new.”
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| Conversation 5/28/2025 |
“That person also has to make adjustments to say, okay, what is this county like?” he said. “And what am I going to be able to do that's not going to disturb what's good and replace it with something that worked good somewhere else?”
“I think there's a balance,” he said. “So whoever comes in needs to get to know the county. They need to get to know our fabric and what makes us Oconee County.”
“And I just think somebody who's lived here probably would have a head start on that,” he said.
Brown said he also would like the Board to ask the candidates: “What can you do as a superintendent to end social promotion for students that fail? I mean, students who fail three classes, three out of four academic classes.”
“What will you do to help them succeed or to help them get more motivated to study?” he asked.
“What are we doing for those students who are not destined for college?” Brown asked. “Are we giving them opportunities and telling them, hey, you don't have to go to college to get the best job in the world?”
Concern About Teachers
“A couple years ago there were a couple independents running or School Board,” Gisler said, “and some of us in this room went and got signatures for them.”
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| Gisler 5/28/2025 |
“When you knocked on the teacher's door, I can't tell you how many times I heard that someone say, oh, I would totally sign that, but I can't have my name on that public record. There would be repercussions.”
“And so my question to a superintendent candidate for the school system is: What are you going to do to eliminate that? Teachers should not be afraid to be citizens.”
Debbie Elstad said she has “grand twins at High Shoals Elementary School” and “they have gotten a wonderful education...They have gotten extra resources in the areas that they needed it.”
“It's been a positive experience,” she said. “But listening to everything that everyone else has said, it sounds like that transparency, accessibility are absolute requirements.”
Ann Stoneburner told the group that she had been a teacher at Oconee County Schools when Debra Harden was the superintendent “and I missed her terribly when she was gone.”
Harden will serve as interim superintendent until the Board hires a replacement for Branch.
Stoneburner said that Harden “has a wonderful character. I think you all will find her above reproach. She was very open and honest with teachers.”
“We really had someone who cared about what was happening in our classrooms,” Stoneburner said. “She has integrity, leadership, and she knows how to deliver.”
Final Call for Transparency And Accessibility
Katie Vickery said she had to pulled her boys from “our zoned elementary school” because of behavior issues at the school.
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| Vickery 5/28/2025 |
“And I went in for answers and I was unable to get those answers,” she said. “And I stand here today, and I still don't have those answers,” she said.
“And so I guess if I was to shape that in the form of a question, it is: How would you respond to this scenario?”
“I think the common thread through everyone's problems is obviously transparency and accessibility,” she said. “And we just want to know that they care.”
End On High Note
When there had been a pause near the of the conversation, Huff stood up.
“Can we end on a high note then?” she said.
“I know there's been a lot of complaints about schools here today, but I am so incredibly thankful and blessed that my child goes to an Oconee County School,” she continued.
“And she has been thriving the entire time that she's been here since kindergarten. She is going to be in the Fourth Grade next year,” Huff said.
“So we are incredibly grateful and thankful and blessed to be in Oconee County with the teachers we have and the administration that we do have,” she said.
“So thanks to them!” she said.
Video
This video is of the entire meeting of the Community Works Oconee session on May 28.
After the session had ended, Terry Thompson, chair of Community Works Oconee, gave an overview of the organization and asked for volunteers.
That clip is at 1:14:44 in the video.
Danis began her comments at 11:55 in the video.
Moreira began speaking at 17:16.
Fresk began speaking at 23:12.
Brown began speaking at 26:25.
Huff began speaking at 34:49.
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