By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In January, James Wilson was honored as the 2023 recipient of the Tennessee Tech Athletics Outstanding Alumni Award, choosing to accept his honor at the Golden Eagle baseball team's inaugural First Pitch Banquet at the Salt Box Inn. On hand to present the annual award to Wilson were President Dr. Phil Oldham, First Lady Kari Oldham, and Director of Athletics Mark Wilson.
A former member of the Tennessee Tech baseball team and a 1975 graduate in education, Wilson put together a remarkable, three-decade-long career as an educator, spending time as an instructor, principal, and superintendent.
As principal at Lassiter High School in Marietta, the school received National Blue Ribbon School status in 1993, a Georgia School of Excellence nod in 1992.
He later served as the senior vice president for the K-12 sector of The Facility Group, an architecture, engineering, and construction firm, providing program management and design oversight. Next, he returned as the superintendent of Cobb County (Ga.) and Fulton County (Ga.) Schools, overseeing two metro Atlanta districts. Understanding the value of education, his tenure saw test scores improve, while also bringing in new technological methods to give students opportunities. While working with Fulton County Schools, Wilson brokered a partnership with Georgia Tech to create virtual classrooms – helping to create the groundwork for modern education – as the goal was to allow students to take classes across distances without physically traveling to the location.
In these current times of virtual classrooms and distance learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it shows how far ahead of the time Wilson's efforts with virtual education were even back in the early 2000s. With the opportunity for students to take advanced courses through Georgia Tech without having to travel from one end of Atlanta to the other and navigate the city's traffic, it gave students a chance to broaden their knowledge in new methods and offer it to students who couldn't have otherwise.
In a 2006 document, Wilson noted that only four percent of students nationwide had the opportunities for online instruction, stating that 'student appliances, tablet computers, handheld devices and/or interactive whiteboards will become essential for success much quicker than we think.' He introduced a data management system called SAMS (Student Achievement Management System) that allowed teachers to access students' cumulative assessment data for planning and instructional purposes.
Connected Academy, the Fulton County Schools' first state-approved charter school was created during his tenure as well.
A popular superintendent for the Fulton County Schools, Wilson stepped down in 2008 with the concerns of 'a grinding schedule and constant demands on his time.' It was cited in local media at the time that Wilson was 'well-liked and respected among our school leaders, our parents, the community and the greater education arena.' According to an article in the Alpharetta-Roswell Revue and News following his resignation, Wilson was hired on in a school system that was in disarray – financial mismanagement in construction, leading to millions in missing and unspent dollars, during an explosion in student population that led to several new buildings. During Wilson's tenure, spending was put back on track with his education background and knowledge of school construction. He helped lead Fulton's high schools to some of its top test scores as eight of the system's schools were among Georgia's top 11 scores in 2007. Following his time with those school districts, Wilson joined the business side of education, establishing Education Planners LLC in 2009 (edplanners.org) and Intellect Learning Strategies in 2011 to serve schools across the Southeast in leadership and business management, creating new methods for those schools to be more efficient and effective with managing resources.
Wilson also worked to promote the renewal of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to fund school construction programs through 2012.
Photos by Emily Armstrong
