Lumpkin School Board Introduces New Superintendent

DAHLONEGA, Ga. — The Lumpkin County Board of Education met in regular session Monday and introduced the school system’s new superintendent — Dr. Robert Brown.

Brown replaces Dr. Dewey Moye who has retired after 35 years of working in the local school system, including 12 as superintendent.

Brown has an impressive background in education, serving as a middle school and high school teacher and coach, high school assistant and principal, executive director of high schools and superintendent of schools. Most recently, he served as superintendent of the Jeff Davis School System.

He holds a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Alabama, a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Jacksonville State University, a B.S. in Physical Education & Health from Carson-Newman College and a B.A. in Psychology from the same institution.

I spoke to Dr. Brown before the meeting and he made it crystal clear where he stands on the Obama Administration’s guidelines regarding the use of bathrooms and locker rooms by transgender students. Those guidelines state that transgender students be allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

But Brown said, “We won’t have girls going into boys’ bathrooms or boys going into the girls’ bathrooms,” he said. “They will use the bathroom of their own sex as designated on their birth certificate.”

But Brown added that schools would do their best to make all students comfortable in their own skin.

Caroline Stewart presented a review of the school system’s general fund balance sheet for the period ending April 30, 2016 which showed total assets of $8,933, 630.48, total liabilities of $3,599, 424.29 and a fund equity of $5,334, 206. 19. The year to date SPLOST collections are down from $1,284, 833 in 2015 to $1,248,832, a difference of $35,996.

The Board decided to wait until after the runoff election between Mera Turner and Catherine Ariemma to fill the vacant District 1 seat.