For the past seven years, Superintendent John Zauner has been a strong leader working to bring the Carroll County Schools up to date in its facilities and increase student achievement, say board members.

Zauner, who announced his retirement for the end of the school year at the August Board of Education meeting, will be hard to replace, Vice Chairman Mike Huckeba said.

“His shoes are going to be hard to fill,” Huckeba said. “He’s done so much for Carroll County.”

One of the challenges Zauner faced when he took over as superintendent in 2003 was a growing system with a need for more and updated classroom space. Labs were out of date. Classrooms were bursting at the seams. Gymnasiums had floors in need of repair.

“Carroll County had not built any additions or classrooms or renovated any schools in a long time,” Huckeba said. “He had to play catch up.”

During his tenure as superintendent, Zauner said his focus was on those two priorities.

Student achievement, which placed the school system in the bottom 25 percent before he took over, was also not where he felt it should be and graduation rates seven years ago were hovering around 65 percent. So, his primary focus when he took over had to be curriculum. He took over just in time for the state to redesign its curriculum and the introduction of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which uses test scores to measure student achievement. Under his tutelage the system came up with a curriculum guide based on national and state standards and a best instructional practices guide for use in the classroom.

He also helped create a partnership with Southwire that resulted in the 12 for Life program to help motivate students who need to work to stay in school.

Now the system’s graduation rate is 75 percent and its student achievement is in the middle 50 percent of the state, Zauner said.

“That’s a drastic move from the year 2000-2001 to present,” he said.

Zauner came to the superintendent position with a strong background in curriculum, said Board of Education member John Stephens. He was assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and student achievement for the system for three years and director of special education for a year before he took over as superintendent.

“One of John’s biggest strengths was his grounding in curriculum,” Stephens said. “That helped him really focus our learning system on getting the kids to be where they need to be.”

In fact, that is one of the things he hopes to find in a new superintendent for the system. The system still needs to improve its student achievement and the superintendent has got to be able to understand how best to do that.

“It’s helpful when you’ve got a strong curriculum person who can support you and guide you through it, but I think it’s different when you have that strength and can apply it,” Stephens said.

In addition, the superintendent has had to guide the system through some challenging economic times, all the while making expansions and improvements to meet the needs of students. That is one of the toughest challenges he faced as superintendent, Zauner said.

He has had a hand in a number of facilities built or renovated over the past several years: Mt. Zion Elementary, Glanton Hindsman Elementary, Central Elementary, Sand Hill Elementary, Villa Rica Middle School, Central High, Temple High, Villa Rica High and Mt. Zion High, all the ninth grade academies – the final ninth-grade academy will be built with the new Mt. Zion High School that the system just started.

The decisions have not always been without controversy. When the first special purpose local option sales tax revenue would not cover all the projects, the school system had postponed construction of Mt. Zion Elementary, which eventually resulted in an unsuccessful lawsuit against the school system.

“Certainly facilities decisions are 50-year decisions,” Zauner said. “They are not to be taken lightly.”

He helped the system create a facilities plan to support instruction, a viable long-term plan that will continue after he leaves. The system now has a prioritized list of projects that it is following as it receives money for construction, taking into account need, state funding and SPLOST dollars available.

That was a huge accomplishment, especially considering the politics involved in a school system, Stephens and Huckeba said.

They both consider Zauner’s fairness one of his strengths. “He doesn’t shy away from doing what needs to be done, but he tries to be fair as he does it, doesn’t play favorites,” Stephens said. “There’s always been a good deal of jockeying for SPLOST funds and things like that, the ability to determine who’s going to be the next principal at a school or something like that, and John has held pretty true to his principles and his own judgment.”

Huckeba thought part of Zaunder’s objectivity was because he didn’t live in the system and have kids in the schools. It also took his strength of personality to stand up to the board members who often have their own agendas, he said.

“He just had a real good sense of priority,” Huckeba said.

Huckeba would like to see the new superintendent continue on the same track that Zauner has laid during his administration.

“Mr. Zauner’s already got kind of a platform to where he started to where he wanted to end,” Huckeba said. “We’re in the middle working towards the goals he wanted and most of them are ...good.”

Zauner has enjoyed the time he spent at Carroll County Schools beginning in 1997 as assistant principal of Bay Springs Middle School, but he said it’s time for him to move on to new challenges.

“I am going to take a little time off, a brief, at least a month maybe two, and then I’m going to get back into the game,” Zauner said. “I still have a passion for what I do and I still feel like I can make a difference.”