Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval  Watch |  Listen
11:00am: Darian DeVries Introduction Press Conference

Fayette superintendent leaves ongoing construction for retirement

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — Fayette County Superintendent Terry George is ready to call it a career.

After 41 years, George will retire Tuesday from the profession he’s known since college.

“To be honest with you it’s kind of a sad time because this is all I’ve ever done. It’s strange and very difficult,” he told MetroNews ahead of his retirement date.

Terry George.

George, 64, started as a teacher and a basketball coach in Randolph County in 1979.

“At the time, the only thing I wanted to be was the most successful basketball coach in America,” said George.

Although he hates to admit it, the coaching didn’t’ work out. However, he worked on a master’s in education administration and originally planned to be an athletic director. He achieved that goal for a period of time, then moved up the ranks to assistant principal. principal, assistant superintendent, and ultimately superintendent of Randolph County Schools.

“You take one job and feel you’ve done a respectable job and you think, ‘Well I can do this job.’ You apply for it and next thing you know you’re a superintendent wondering how you got there,” he said.

George could have finished up his career in Elkins, but the State Department Education came calling with a challenging offer to be superintendent in Fayette County. He took over in June 2015. It was a job where the chances of success were small and the possibility of failure was vast. Several had failed before in a county where residents were boiling over numerous attempts at consolidation all while the aging school buildings were literally crumbling around their children.

Fayette County Superintendent of Schools Terry George during a 2016 tour of school facilities in Ansted.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but you always want to try and see if you can do something that other people have been unsuccessful at. I was in a position in my career that allowed me to do that,” he said.

Several schools were literally crumbling. Part of the Collins Middle School building in Oak Hill had to be closed after it was determined the building was unsafe.

Fayette County voters soundly defeated a school consolidation plan in 2015 before George took over. George said he started to build bridges with the community, formed coalitions and alliances. George said he tried to downplay the negatives and accentuate the positives. The county presented a $50 million school consolidation plan to the state Board of Education in 2015 and it was approved on a 6-3 vote but the state School Building Authority voted it down before reconsidering it and then approving it.

“We’re very pleased,” said George about the SBA’s decision to put the plan back on its agenda in November 2015. “We have not changed the amendment. I just think that they took the opportunity to reconsider and also I think that we were able to provide them with some additional facts concerning the financing of our project.”

Since then there’s been consistent funding for the projects and several have been completed. George said he’d love to claim credit, but it wasn’t his doing.

“I’m very proud of what we were able to do in Fayette County. There was a lot of work, effort, and team work by the board, the central office staff, and the staff in the schools as well as the citizens. It was an extremely strong effort from an extremely good group of people,” he said.

He said he’s satisfied he accomplished what others could not and leaves the Fayette County system in much better shape than he found it.





More News

News
Lottery reports $50,000 Powerball ticket sold in Charleston
Four numbers and Power Ball matched.
March 28, 2024 - 10:24 am
News
MetroNews This Morning 3-28-24
Summary of West Virginia news/sports/weather for Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024 - 6:25 am
News
PSC approves settlements involving Mon Power, net-metering cases
Rate increase went into effect Tuesday.
March 27, 2024 - 9:42 pm
News
Speakers at Focus Forward symposium discuss AI capabilities in West Virginia
The event was organized by the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
March 27, 2024 - 8:30 pm