Dr. Torian White is returning to the Bulloch County Schools to be the district’s superintendent, officially starting July 1, since the Board of Education voted 5-0 Thursday evening, June 11, to confirm him in the role.

After the meeting, he and board Chair Elizabeth Williams signed and initialed copies of a three-year contract. Then they took questions from reporters in a press conference set up at the front of the meeting room.

“I’m super, super excited, and first of all, grateful to Board Chair Ms. Williams and the entire board for the opportunity and the vote of confidence to be able to serve this community in this way,” White said. “I spent some time here, seven years ago, and there’s so many great people all the way from Portal to Brooklet, Stilson, Register, Statesboro and all of the communities in between.”

He previously served here as principal of Southeast Bulloch Middle School, just outside Brooklet, from 2014 to 2019, before returning to Effingham County to become principal of his alma mater, South Effingham High School, where he remained through the 2025-26 session.

Now 44, he is coming back to Bulloch, where in his first year as superintendent he can help break ground for a new 2,000-student Southeast Bulloch High School. An architect presented more detailed plans for the two-story school, also during Thursday evening’s meeting. Its completion will free up the current SEB High School to be converted for use as SEB Middle, with the current middle school becoming an “upper elementary,” or at least that’s the current plan.

But for now, when school starts back in August, he will be the superintendent of a 15-campus school system with more than 11,000 students.

“One thing I’ve noticed is there are a lot of people committed to children, and I’m glad to just be a part of that, working alongside the board, district leaders, teachers and staff,” White continued in remarks to reporters. “So I’m super, super excited, ready to get started, but not until July 1st.”

Interim Superintendent Richard Smith, who with Williams led board members through Thursday’s agenda, is expected to continue in that role through June, during the transition. After previous, longtime Superintendent Charles Wilson helped start the budget-making process, Smith also worked with the board in completion of its fiscal year 2027 budget, which was also approved by the board Thursday in order to take effect July 1.

The budget vote, like the vote to approve the new superintendent’s contract, was unanimous at 5-0, with three of the eight elected board members absent during the meeting.

Salary in context

The three-year contract provides White a $235,000 starting salary. For comparison, Wilson’s final three-year contract, from March 2023, carried a $230,000 annual salary. White’s contract provides for retirement plan contributions standard for Georgia public school educators, for insurance coverage on the same basis as all other Bulloch County Schools teachers and administrators, for professional memberships, travel reimbursement, and a confidential annual performance evaluation by the board.

One thing the contract does not provide is an allowance for moving to Bulloch County. As White revealed in response to a question from the Statesboro Herald, during his first year on the job he plans to commute from his home in Effingham County, where the younger of his two sons will be a senior at South Effingham High. His older son will be a freshman at Georgia Southern University, and so in Statesboro.

“Graciously, our board understands that we’re about children, and in speaking with them about our rising senior, they are in agreement with me remaining in Effingham County this year, and I’ll be commuting, because again, whether I’m superintendent or whatever my role is, I am a father first, and I am appreciative to the board,” he said.

But White added that after his son graduates, the superintendent “will be here in Bulloch County,” and is already starting to look for where in the county he wants to reside.

Search results

The Bulloch County Board of Education acted in late November to launch a national search for a superintendent with assistance from the Georgia School Boards Association, more than four months before Wilson’s announced retirement took effect March 31.

After receiving 37 applications through the GSBA and interviewing 10 selected candidates, the board in a special called session May 18 voted to name White as the only finalist for the job, thus fulfilling a legal requirement in the Georgia Open Records Act for release of information on “as many as three” finalists at least 14 days before a final vote to hire.

More of his background

White is a veteran educator with 23 years of experience, 14 of which were as a middle and high school administrator, assistant principal and principal.

“Having lived, worshipped, and led in Bulloch County for five years, I understand its values and its people, insight that will be valuable as the district enters its next strategic planning cycle," he said in a letter to Williams as part of his application. "With that foundation in both the community and the district, I am prepared to return with broadened experience, a strategic perspective, and the systems-level leadership necessary to advance the board’s key priorities.”

White has also served as an adjunct faculty member for Georgia Southern’s Department of Leadership, Technology and Human Development, as well as on some GSU College of Education committees over the past eight years.

He attained his doctorate, a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, from Mercer University in 2014. He also holds a specialist degree in leadership from Cambridge College and a master’s degree in education from Troy University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in education, specializing in teaching mathematics, from the University of Georgia.

White began his career in 2003 at Salem High School in Rockdale County as a math teacher, and after four years, his peers selected him as their school’s teacher of the year.

He continued to serve Rockdale County Public Schools until 2014. The district promoted him to serve in various administrative, assistant principal, and principal roles at Salem High School, Rockdale Open Campus, a summer school program, and Conyers Middle School. He credits these early career experiences with developing his passion for working with struggling learners and extending his work into evening academies and summer credit recovery.

“Those experiences birthed three elements of my educational philosophy: high expectations, connected relationships, and a strong belief in students’ capabilities,” White stated in his application.

The board in February chose Smith, executive director of the First District Regional Educational Service Agency and a previously retired superintendent, to serve as Bulloch County’s interim superintendent beginning April 1.