After 30 years of service in the Bulloch County Schools, Superintendent Charles Wilson will retire effective March 31, 2026, he announced via a media release Tuesday evening.
Originally from South Carolina, Wilson made Bulloch County his home. He started his Bulloch County career as the school system’s chief financial officer and assistant superintendent of business services. After serving in those roles for 16 years, he was selected by the Board of Education in 2012 from a pool of 33 applicants to lead the district as superintendent, a position he has held for more than 13 years.
“It has been my absolute honor to serve the families of Bulloch County,” Wilson said in the release. “I am filled with gratitude as I reflect on my years of service. This community has become part of my heart.
“You can’t spend decades working side by side with people you care about and not feel deeply connected,” he continued. “Together we’ve overcome challenges, celebrated successes, and built a strong team whose leadership will continue to move our schools and community forward.”
A certified public accountant when he arrived as the school system’s chief financial officer, Wilson has maintained his CPA credential. He had attained a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The Citadel and a master’s in business administration from Georgia Southern University, where while serving the school district he also earned a specialist’s degree in education.
His accomplishments
As CFO, Wilson guided the county school district through a significant major building campaign, using Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Taxes to replace five aging school facilities and six athletic complexes, according to the release issued by school district Public Relations Director Hayley Greene. Voters have approved all further E-SPLOST referendums put forward during his tenure as superintendent, and a sixth such sales tax proposal is now on the ballot.
“Under Wilson's leadership, the district consistently employed long-term cost reduction strategies and maintained a strong reserve fund balance, earning favorable recognition from national bond rating entities and the Georgia Department of Audits and Reports,” the release asserted. “For over 25 years, the school district has maintained a spotless audit record with no federal or state audit findings.”
The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts has recognized the Bulloch County Board of Education multiple times with the state agency’s Award of Distinction for Excellent Financial Reporting, an honor reportedly received by fewer than 35 of the state’s 181 public school districts annually.
Tuesday’s release went on to describe the school system’s budgetary strategy of accumulating a healthy fund balance in the COVID pandemic years and afterward under Wilson’s leadership, but also acknowledged a state funding reduction that affected the school district this year. The Bulloch County Board of Education in August approved a roughly 3-mill increase in its property tax rate. The 10.4-mill rate is still one of the lowest millage rates for school maintenance and operations among Georgia counties, but Bulloch also is one of just eight Georgia counties where the original 1% Local Option Sales Tax is devoted to school funding and offset by a continuing rollback of the school millage rate, a fact that predates Wilson’s service.
‘Performance culture’
The release about his planned retirement also touts Wilson’s record as “an advocate for creating a performance culture inside the school district by providing leadership training, matching faculty skills with district and school needs, and empowering school administrators and teachers to be innovative.” This is done by supplying them with data analysis tools and instructional technology needed to make data-driven decisions.
“In the past we operated through a top-down decision making process with isolated individual practices at each of our 15 schools,” Wilson said. “I am proud that we have built a performance culture that embraces excellence, trust, transparency, and accountability. We have empowered our principals and teachers to decide what is best for students by removing barriers. I know that the leadership capacity in this district will continue to find ways through the challenges and provide our students with the opportunities they deserve.”
Next steps for the BOE
The announced March 31 date of Wilson’s retirement reflects the end date of his current contract. The Board of Education in March 2023 approved a three-year contract, starting at a $230,000 annual salary, to March 31, 2026.
Wilson announced his retirement to principals of the schools on Tuesday – there are 15 schools in the system – before the media release was issued, Greene said when phoned about the timing.
According to the release, the Board of Education has begun its initial planning steps to launch its search for Bulloch County’s next superintendent of schools. Board Chair Elizabeth Williams, who had retired as a school administrator in the district before being elected to the board, made a statement about Wilson for the release.
“Throughout the time that I have known Charles Wilson, both as a CFO and superintendent, he has been laser-focused on making sure that Bulloch County was able to provide the resources students would need to be successful,” Williams said. “He has worked hard to make sure that our students can go on to be successful adults.”