LOXLEY — Education leaders and residents gathered Tuesday to learn about the final two contenders for the Baldwin County Public Schools superintendent position and who will succeed the now retired Eddie Tyler.

The Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE) held interviews at the end of its work session July 14 at its Central Office Satellite from 4 p.m. until the last question wrapped up around 7:30 p.m. Baldwin County school board members Ken Bradley, Andrea Lindsey, president Tony Myrick, Rondi Kirby, Jason P. Woerner, Cecil Christenberry and vice president April Bradley questioned finalists Marty McRae and Tony McGee in back-to-back interviews buffered by a five-minute break.

The interviews covered topics including special education, maintaining staff relationships, mental health, technology, school safety and crisis management.

Tyler announced his retirement March 19 after 11 years leading the county school system, initially in emails addressed to staff and parents before announcing it at the board of education meeting later that day, according to a previous article by GCM. His retirement took effect June 30, naming McRae, currently BCPS assistant superintendent for security, athletics and student services, interim superintendent.

FINALIST TONY MCGEE

McGee comes from neighboring state Mississippi where he’s currently the superintendent at Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District. Prior to that position, he served as superintendent for seven years at Scott County School District where he “moved them up to a ‘B’ school district,” he said in his interview. He also served seven years at Kosciusko School District.

Community concerns were brought up in questions by the board about McGee's experience in counties smaller than the vastness of Baldwin County.

“How would you respond to those concerns, and what experiences have best prepared you to successfully lead a school system of Baldwin County’s size and complexity?" Woerner asked.

Starkville's district contains nine schools and 4,882 students, while Kosciusko School District contains six schools and 1,999 students, according to U.S. News & World Report. BCPS includes 44 schools and 31,818 students.

“Leadership is not defined to a school size, a school zone within a state,” he said. “School problems are school problems … I’ve spent 18 years making decisions on what’s best for kids, what’s best for communities and what’s best for teachers … the same problems you have in Baldwin County are the same problems we have back in Mississippi.”

After McGee brought up the topic of crises, board member Lindsey asked if he thought there is a “crisis in public education.”

He said some of the crises he's seen are teacher shortages, mental health, safety and security.

This led McGee to discuss one of the biggest crises he said he's faced as a superintendent: a large-scale immigration raid across Mississippi. According to an NPR article from Nov. 17, 2019, on Aug. 7 of that year, about 680 people were arrested and more than half the total arrested were in Morton, a city he oversaw as superintendent of Scott County, a district with nine schools and 4,015 students, according to U.S. News & World Report data.

“The next day, everyone from FOX News to CNN … everybody was at my office, wanting to know, ‘What ya gonna do?’” he said. “Those kids came to school with a mom and dad, two hours later they didn’t have one [to pick them up from school] … a third of my students in Morton didn’t have a parent.”

Teary-eyed, he recalled teachers taking care of students and their response to the situation.

“Are there crises facing public education? Yeah, but they’re also facing everyone else. We just got to prepare, and we're ready when they come … the only way to face a problem is meet it where it's at.”

McGee earned his Ph.D. in  educational leadership from Mississippi State University and master's degree in educational administration and supervision from the University of Southern Mississippi. He also holds a bachelor's in physical education from Mississippi State.

FINALIST MARTY MCRAE

McRae has lived in Baldwin County for about 30 years and began his career at Fairhope High School as a math teacher and coach, according to the BCPS website.

“Baldwin County is such a special place. I got here in 1990, and I knew right off if I'm staying in education, this is where I'm staying,” he said.

After his 11th year teaching, he said his career switch to the administrative side was “accidental” when he was asked by a former assistant principal at Fair Hope High School to help with her position before she moved away. This resulted in him being named the Pirates' assistant principal , where he served for the next nine years after, according to BCPS. He became the Spanish Fort Toros' principal in 2010 until he moved to his current position as assistant superintendent and athletic director in 2015. 

McRae went to George Wallace Community College in Dothan then transferred to Troy University, his bio on the BCPS website says. Halfway through his degree in accounting and computer science, he wanted to pursue education instead. He later earned his degree from Auburn University at Montgomery.

His interview mainly discussed growth, technology and special education.

The first question asked was by board member Bradley, stating: “You have played an important role in implementing this district's vision and contributing to its continued improvement over the years. If selected as superintendent, how would you build on that momentum? What successful practices would you preserve, and what changes and new initiatives would you introduce to the district?”

In hindsight, the district's vision has to be about the children, McRae said.

“When I'm working on things that I want to implement and do that, the first thing I do is I got to make sure I have the right people around me, and that means hiring the right people on a superintendent level," he said.

Later in the meeting, he addressed the growth that Baldwin County has seen will eventually lead to building another school for a feeder pattern.

Growth was a topic discussed to bring up the idea of teamwork. As previously reported by GCM, “Baldwin County’s population estimate for 2025, according to Census data, is 265,813. That represented 30.3% growth from 2014 to 2024. In 2015, the county was home to 202,939 people according to JobsEQ data aggregated by BCEDA.”

In a recommendation of action, he suggested creating another feeder pattern, “which basically means starting another high school.”

“We’re just growing so fast, and so many people are moving in. And we’ve been kind of lucky the last couple of years. If you see our numbers, it’s at least the number of homes being built, the number of people moving to Baldwin County. It hasn’t really correlated to the number of children,” McRae said.

In remarks to GCM after the public meeting about his interest in the position, McGee said BCPS has "a tremendous school system already established here, a great vision for their students and a great vision for their community. Because, you know, the question is why wouldn’t you want to be a part of this?" McGee said. “I think it's a tremendous opportunity for any school leader; just excited to be in the final two and just to be here tonight.”

According to BCPS Communications Specialist Chasity Riddick in an email to GCM, the board is planning to vote on Thursday, July 16, at its regular meeting on who will get the job.

Editor's note: This article reflects an update to correct Tony McGee's currently title as superintendent of Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District.