McGee ending 35-year career with Bibb schools

Finally, retirement time is drawing near for Sylvia McGee, deputy superintendent of Bibb County schools.

Only a year late.

McGee had planned to call it quits at the end of the 2010-11 academic year. But with the school system in disarray after the resignation of then-Superintendent Sharon Patterson and the Bibb County school board seeking a replacement, McGee stayed on, at the board’s request, to serve as acting superintendent.

What was supposed to be a short-term solution ended up lasting an entire year, with McGee working through the end of this month to help ease the transition for new Superintendent Romain Dallemand, who began work in February.

It wasn’t a role she sought out, even though she had some experience at it when Patterson had health issues a few years ago.

“Being interim (the first time), it was a defined amount of time,” McGee said. “It was, ‘Here’s the beginning point, here’s the end point.’ (The second time) was a completely different experience. We were in a tumultuous kind of state from top to bottom. There was a lot of questioning of what was going on. It was a real emotional time, but it wasn’t about me. I’m here as a deputy. I gained a lot of experience from this.”

Patterson resigned in February 2010, due in part to a state ethics probe after two school board members filed a complaint against her. McGee also was caught up in the probe at the time, although some of the initial complaints against her have since been dismissed.

’Doing it for the children’

Board member Ella Carter said McGee’s leadership at the time helped the district weather the storm.

“She was under some duress, and I admire her” for taking over, Carter said of McGee. “She was taking the reins at the time with the circumstances being what they were. It took a lot of fortitude. She was doing it all for the children.

“It had to be a great sacrifice for her. ... It was the most critical time I had ever seen. I have a great deal of respect for her because she had the children at heart.”

McGee, 59, said she felt obligated to step up for the students’ sake.

“Initially, it was very, very stressful,” she said. “There was a lot of ambivalence. I had planned to retire last year, and it really extended my time. ... I felt like I had to do it. It was supposed to be a couple of months, but it got longer and longer and longer.”

McGee said the state is still reviewing three different complaints by the Professional Standards Commission against her and other Bibb County school administrators. The allegations include failing to report a former Northeast High School principal who admitted having an affair with a subordinate, as well as a former Appling Middle School principal who allegedly choked a student and a former Rutland High School football coach who allegedly endangered the health of his players by falsifying the heat index to make them practice and also pressured staff members about the players’ grades.

Even though McGee is retiring, she said her attorney is still working to get all of the complaints dismissed.

“It is frustrating,” she said. “But I have to be patient about it. It’s important to me that this resolves itself. It’s still my professional reputation. It’s important to me professional and personally as far as my integrity. It’s important to get it resolved.”

Dallemand said McGee has been crucial in bridging the gap while he has gotten settled into his role as superintendent.

“She’s been a big help,” he said. “We’ve worked very closely together. I’m very pleased with her work. She gave the district decades of her career. She cares a lot about kids. She’s very concerned for the students and cares tremendously about this county. I’m very fortunate to have worked with her for the past four months. She’s helped me with the history of the schools and this district.”

‘A perfectionist’

McGee, herself a product of the Bibb County school system, was a student at another turbulent time in history -- school desegregation.

She and current school board member Wanda West were graduates of the final class at the old A.L. Miller High School in Macon as the district was going through integration in 1970.

“It was the last class before complete desegregation,” McGee said. “It had been partial to that point. It hadn’t gone through a complete change.”

McGee said she feels fortunate to have experienced those times because they helped shape who she is.

“African Americans were needing to become empowered,” she said. “There was a need (among older black men and women) to give back and to help us. It was ingrained in us at elementary school. I grew up in an exciting time. There was so much change during that time. But that whole issue of helping someone -- that was kind of a pervasive message.”

Few people know McGee better than West does. West said even when the two of them were young girls, she could see qualities in McGee that would help her become a successful educator.

“She was always prim and proper,” West said. “Our parents raised us to focus on manners, to focus on education, to focus on articulation and focusing on putting us where we needed to be -- with the right people to train us. She’s always been quiet, a thinker, scholarly. She’s always been a perfectionist. Even in her dress and presence, everything has to be just so, to fit the occasion. She grew up with the qualities you need in a leadership role. ... She’s very compassionate.”

McGee said she never grew up with the goal of being an educator specifically. Rather, she wanted to work in a field where she could help people. She got her master’s and education specialist degrees from the University of Georgia, and started out as a scholastic social worker in the Bibb County school system in 1976. She was one of six social workers, each of whom would cover five to seven schools in the district.

“I always wanted to be a helping professional,” McGee said. “Not necessarily in education, but this has been a part of the things I wanted to do. I trained as a social worker to help families. It evolved beyond that.”

Carter said she got to know McGee when Carter became principal at Northeast High in 2001. By then, McGee had ascended to deputy superintendent. Carter said McGee would often be at a school if some sort of crisis developed.

“I didn’t see her all that often,” Carter said with a laugh. “But if there was something brewing, she’d be there and I’d think ‘Here comes the peacemaker.’ I ran a pretty tight ship, so she often came for good reasons,” too.

Reading, resting, relaxing

McGee said she’s looking forward to decompressing when retirement finally comes. She wants to take some time to work on home improvement projects and catch up on her reading.

The Bibb County school system won’t be far from her thoughts, though. After a little time, she plans to volunteer at Williams Elementary, doing reading and tutorial work.

She said the slower speed will take some getting used to, though.

“I’m going to miss the pace,” McGee said. “As much as I complain about it, there are so many items that need to get done. It’s so dynamic, so fluid. You never know what’s going to come up. You have to respond to situations and problem solve. You work with principals, parents, administrators, the community. It’s a fairly big range of people.

“Now that the students have graduated, things are finally slowing down,” she said.

“It feels like being on a hamster wheel. I can look at things slowly instead of having them fly by at 90 miles per hour. ... Dealing with obstructions, my actions have to reflect what I believe.

“Education isn’t just a job. It’s a belief system, and your actions have to align with that.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "McGee ending 35-year career with Bibb schools."