Lee Co. welcomes new school superintendent this year

LEESBURG, Ga. – To go along with the new school year, the Lee County School System welcomed their new superintendent, Dr. Kathleen Truitt.

And, we caught up with her Wednesday morning to talk about her plans for the school system.

Dr. Truitt officially started Wednesday after being named the sole final candidate for the job.

And, she’s coming to Lee County with plenty of experience as an educator.

“I started in education as a teacher. I was an alternatively Certified Teacher; my first Degree was in Communications and my Masters was in Middle Grades Education. So, I spent 13 years in the classroom and then spent time as an Assistant Principal, a Principal at both elementary and secondary, and then an Assistant Superintendent for Henry County Schools,” said Dr. Kathleen Truitt, Superintendent, Lee Co. School System.

Dr. Truitt says she chose the Lee County School System because in her words, the county is one of the best-kept secrets in the state of Georgia.

For the recently started school year, she has a few plans in mind….

“…So my job this year is really to listen and learn, and to gather that community voice. To put teams together, and we’ll decide what our next steps are from there. So, how is it that we take all the good things we’re doing now and move them to great,” said Dr. Truitt.

As far as what she has in mind for the long-term for the current and future students of Lee County, she wants there to be a focus on access…

“I think some of our long-term goals are really to increase opportunities, access, and outcomes for students. So, what that means is more opportunities for advanced learning, more access to that advanced learning where students are showing true success and then incredible outcomes. So, we want to open doors for students that previously, they hadn’t had those opportunities,” said Dr. Truitt.

And, for Dr. Truitt, one of the things that she wants to bring into Lee County is a stronger focus on early development.

“I have led some work around early learning with explicit phonics instruction and explicit language instruction, and I know surrounding counties are doing some exploration there and so that would be something that I would want to bring to Lee County,” said Dr. Truitt.

While Dr. Truitt says that the Lee County School System already has a solid foundation to work with, she’s excited to see how she can further strengthen that foundation and the development of all Lee County students.

The Lee County School System looked at and interviewed 20 applicants for superintendent before naming Dr. Truitt as the sole finalist.

Brian Roche reporting.

Copyright 2023 CBS 44 South Georgia. All rights reserved.