Community Works Oconee has firmed up its plans to hold a listening session from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on May 28 at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park to give citizens a chance to say what they are looking for in the next superintendent of Oconee County Schools.
Ann Hollifield, who is organizing the event, said at the meeting of the Oconee County Democrats last week that the session is nonpartisan and open to all members of the community.
Hollifield said she will produce a report based on what people say at the meeting and give it to the members of the Oconee County Board of Education.
Margaret Holt, a retired University of Georgia Adult Education professor, will moderate the session and solicit input from the audience. Hollifield said the session also will provide opportunities for people to submit anonymous comments.
Hollifield said that she has invited all five members of the Oconee County School Board to attend the session and that Board Member Brock Toole has expressed a desire to attend if his schedule allows it.
Hollifield said she has not yet heard back from Board Chair Michael Ransom or Vice Chair Amy Parrish, but that Board Members Adam Hammond and Ryan Hammock have said they will be traveling and will not be able to attend.
Separately, Ransom has indicated that the short time frame for the search–the Board has appointed Interim Superintendent Debra Harden on a half-time basis until Dec. 31–does not indicate that the Board is leaning toward appointing an internal candidate. The contract with Harden states it can be extended.
Ransom said it should be possible for someone currently employed to break a contract and assume the position of superintendent of Oconee County Schools in January.
Program Details
Hollifield said at the May 15 meeting of the Oconee County Democrats that the purpose of the May 28 session is to give residents of Oconee County the opportunity “to talk about what they think is most important in the Oconee Schools' next superintendent.”
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| Hollifield 5/15/2025 |
Current Superintendent Jason Branch is retiring at the end of June, and the School Board has retained Georgia Leadership Associates to help the Board select the next superintendent.
At its May 12 meeting, the Board approved the appointment of former Oconee County Schools Superintendent Harden to be interim superintendent until Dec. 31 or until a new superintendent is hired. Her contract calls for her to work 49 percent of the time.
Hollifield told the Democrats that the May 28 meeting “is going to be a listening session. We'll be taking notes. It will be recorded. We're inviting anonymous contributions and online contributions.”
“All of this will be recorded and put into a report that is unedited and delivered to the School Board so that that feedback gets to them,” she said.
Hollifield encouraged those present “to come and participate and also to spread the word that we're having this.”
She said she wanted to reach out to parents of children in the schools as well as to the majority of citizens in the county, who do not have children in the schools but pay school taxes.
Community Works Oconee
Hollifield, who also is an officer in the Oconee County Democratic Party, said at the meeting last week that the listening session will be “a nonpartisan community service event.”
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| Holt |
The Oconee County Democratic Party created Community Works Oconee as a way “to have people in the community, in Oconee County, work together to do volunteer work to fill needs that exist,” Terry Thompson, who is heading up the effort, said at the May 15 meeting.
Thompson said Community Works Oconee is “separate from the Oconee County Dems, but we hope to get plenty of people from the Oconee County Dems as volunteers as well.”
Holt, who will serve as moderator at the May 28 event, has extensive experience serving in that capacity with the National Issues Forum, a non-partisan, nationwide network of civic, educational, and other organizations and individuals interested in promoting public deliberation.
She ran a National Issues Forum on “A House Divided” at the Oconee County Library in 2019.
Holt also has worked extensively with the Kettering Foundation, a non-partisan research foundation based in Dayton, Ohio, that runs programs to promote community deliberation in the U.S. and around the world.
(Hollifield is my wife.)
Email Exchange With Ransom
I sent Board Chair Michael Ransom the following email at 8:30 p.m. on May 15 asking about the Board’s search for a replacement for Branch.
“The announcement of the short-term appointment of Dr. Harden, along with the half-time contract, suggest you are anticipating an appointment by the end of the year. Since anyone with a current contract in another school system is unlikely to be able to break that contract, this suggests you are leaning toward an internal appointment. The presence of Dr. Branch in both of your executive sessions in which you have discussed the new superintendent reinforces this idea. What is leading the Board to lean toward an internal appointment?”
Ransom responded at 10:20 a.m. the next day (May 16).
“The half-time contract with Dr. Harden is used in order to make sure that her TRS is not affected. Retired educators that return to work in education typically return at 49% so that they do not affect their retirement.” (TRS stands for Teachers Retirement System.)
“Current contracts are not difficult to break and a system would typically let a person out of their contract if the employee put in a notice/request for separation.”
“Dr. Branch has not been present during the portion of executive session when there has been discussion of searching for a new superintendent.”
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