Superintendent
In his 24th year in education, Dr. Terry Oatts most recently served as Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement in Fayette County Public Schools, where he has worked since 2014. During his tenure in Fayette County, Dr. Oatts led the district’s development of a new 5-Year Strategic Plan and took the lead in the development of his district’s Strategic Waiver application which was successfully approved by the State Board of Education. Additionally, Dr. Oatts, a state credentialed TKES/LKES Trainer, facilitated Fayette’s transition to the Teacher Leader Effectiveness evaluation system.
Dr. Oatts, a 2016 graduate of the American Association of School Administrators’ (AASA) inaugural cohort of the National Aspiring Superintendents Academy in Alexandria, Virginia and a participant in Harvard Graduate School of Education’s 2017 National Institute for Urban School Leaders in Cambridge, Massachusetts, previously served on the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) National Advisory Board. Dr. Oatts is also a 2014 graduate of the Georgia School Superintendents Association’s (GSSA) District Office Professional Development Program, and he is currently completing GSSA’s 13th Cohort of the Superintendent Professional Development Program (SPDP). For the last four years, Dr. Oatts has served as District 12 Director for the Georgia Association of Curriculum and Instructional Supervisors (GACIS) representing the eight Griffin RESA districts and he is currently serving a three-year term on the Georgia AdvancED Council effective July 1, 2017. Dr. Oatts is also a member of the United Way of Greater Atlanta/Fayette Advisory Board and has been instrumental in advocating for school-aged children in the development of the advisory board’s work on the child wellness index.
Prior to his district office tenure, Dr. Oatts spent the better part of a decade as a Title I elementary school Principal, middle school Principal, and high school Principal in neighboring Henry County. During his principal tenure, Dr. Oatts received many accolades including but not limited to his elementary school being recognized as a Distinguished Title I School, establishing the first high school credit-bearing world language middle grades program, increasing his graduation rate by nearly 10 points in two years, and obtaining U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools (Bronze) and Washington Post Most Challenging High Schools recognition. Prior to his principal tenure, Dr. Oatts spent nearly seven years as a high school assistant principal in Glynn and Gwinnett Counties at a non-Title and Title I high school respectively. Prior to his administrative tenure, Dr. Oatts spent five years as an elementary special education teacher-assistant, middle school counselor, and Title I elementary school counselor. Since 1997, Dr. Oatts has taught graduate studies within the College of Education at both traditional and proprietary institutions of higher learning all across the state including his alma mater, Georgia Southern University, and at Troy University, Argosy University, Mercer University, and Piedmont College.
Dr. Oatts holds a B.S. degree in Communication Arts and three graduate degrees in education all from Georgia Southern University. His doctoral degree is in Curriculum Studies with an emphasis in Educational Leadership. Dr. Oatts has authored several publications including two books, one on the achievement gap and one on the educational philosophy of W.E.B. Du Bois. The latter research was cited in the Journal of American History in 2004. Dr. Oatts also co-authored a widely disseminated article in 1999 in the Journal Education on the diagnostic disparities between ADHD and Conduct disorder involving African American adolescent males and their counterparts. Dr. Oatts is married to a middle grades educator, and they have two K-8 school-aged children and a junior in college.