New superintendent job would be different if ChattCo votes for this candidate

The Chattahoochee County Board of Education is scheduled to vote Monday on filling the superintendent vacancy left by David McCurry's retirement.

And if the vote goes as expected, McCurry will succeed himself as superintendent of the Chattahoochee County School District — on a part-time basis, at 49 percent of his salary.

The board's called meeting will be conducted in the Chattahoochee County Middle/High School library, starting at 6 p.m.

Board chairwoman Christy Humber told the Ledger-Enquirer in a phone interview that none of the other four board members objected to her proposal.

"I have run it by them," she said. "They seem to be very supportive."

The Ledger-Enquirer didn't reach McCurry before deadline, but Humber said he has agreed to the proposal.

Humber explained the rationale for bringing back McCurry in a part-time role.

"He has done a very good job for Chattahoochee County," she said. "We've got the College and Career Academy ongoing — we're still building it — and just having him there to be able to see it through will save us money (in superintendent salary) and it also will give the board more time on a superintendent search."

The academy, funded by a $3.1 million state grant, is where more than 200 of the approximately 460 ChattCo students in grades 9-12 took courses this past school year. Renovations this summer will upgrade two wings by the start of this coming school year, and new construction will produce two labs scheduled to open in January.

Tim Buchanan, the CEO of ChattCo’s College and Career Academy, officially named Chattahoochee Valley College and Career Academy, has been serving as interim superintendent since McCurry retired.

McCurry was ChattCo’s superintendent for four years and worked for 30½ years as an educator in Georgia. His wife, Jackie, retired in November as the federal programs director in the Grady County School District, where he was principal of Cairo High School. So he started thinking about joining her in retirement and ending the back-and-forth drives they did to spend weekends together the past four years, McCurry told the Ledger-Enquirer when it reported his retirement.

“I love what I do,” he said then, “but it’s always been my goal to retire early and look at other opportunities.”

Those opportunities already included signing an agreement with the Technical College System of Georgia to help train the approximately 40 College and Career Academy boards around the state. Now, those opportunities also include returning to ChattCo.

This story was originally published June 29, 2018 at 12:01 PM.