Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kent Edwards took over Wednesday as interim superintendent for the Carrollton City Schools in the first phase of a change of leadership in the school system.

Superintendent Tom Wilson announced his retirement this year effective July 1, but in a plan to save the school system money in a difficult economy, he will be come back Aug. 1 as part-time superintendent working less than 20 hours a week to help the transition into a new superintendent whenever that position is filled by the Board of Education.

“What we will be doing is I will be working with the board over the next few months as they advertise and announce and select my replacement,” Wilson said. “When that announcement’s made, then I will begin working with that person in the transition.”

It’s a move that will save the school system half of the superintendent salary and all of his benefits, more than $100,000 over the year.

Wilson expects a new superintendent to be hired some time in October. The early hiring will give the new superintendent time to transition into the job with Wilson available to answer questions and offer guidance, Edwards said.

A more traditional job transfer, where one superintendent leaves and the next day a new one comes in, leaves the new superintendent with a void in knowledge he or she needs to fill alone.

“A lot of times in that system, the working knowledge of the system is really the board secretary,” Edwards said. “(This plan allows the system) to recapture all that wisdom, all that experience and keep it.”

In addition, many of the board projects, such as the budget, are long-term projects worked out well in advance of their implementation. With the new superintendent beginning to work mid-year, he or she will have input into the decisions that are being made.

There is also a shortage of candidates looking for superintendent jobs across the state, Edwards said. This part-time arrangement gives the board plenty of time to find a qualified candidate who is the right fit for the school system.

Wilson, who has spent 35 years in education, had planned to retire next year anyway. This arrangement is advantageous to him as well. It will give Wilson the option to continue to work at least part time while waiting out a legally required 12-month period before he can take another school superintendent job in the state.

“The way the retirement laws are set, you have to be retired for a year if you want to go back to work full time,” Wilson said. “So, it’s an advantage for me too if I want to go back working somewhere as a superintendent, then I would have the option to do that.”

Edwards served as interim superintendent last year during Wilson’s vacation.

“To prepare for it ... I started attending some of the work sessions,” Edwards said. “I always attended the board meetings. Mr. Wilson has offered me opportunities to participate in some board-level activities that principals and really central office staff has not been involved with in the past.”

He also attended the Georgia School Board Association with some of the board members this June to get a feel for the kind of communication that has to take place between the board members and the system to maintain an efficient working relationship.

Edwards would be interested in being permanent superintendent of the city school system and plans to throw his name in the hat for consideration once the board starts formally looking. A superintendency is the next step in the career path and he would like to stay in the system because.

“This is my fifth school system, and it’s by far the best school system that I’ve been a staff member of,” Edwards said.

He also knows, as in every system, there is room for improvement, and he would like to be involved in that process.

With all the benefits of the part-time superintendent, other school systems are following the same plan. Bremen City Schools will also have a part-time superintendent next year using the same model as Carrollton City Schools.

However, while the part-time superintendent is a good short-term arrangement for the school system, it is not viable for years, Wilson said. The work involved would be too much for a part-time superintendent alone and it would be difficult to find someone who would be willing to take the job on a long-term, part-time commitment.

“This is a one-time, one-year deal,” Wilson said. “I wouldn’t recommend anyone doing it long term. ... You know a lot of school systems will do it where they will keep the former superintendent as a consultant kind of thing to work with them, and we talked about that, but I think this is cleaner and kind of is a win-win for everybody.”