OCILLA — The Irwin County School System’s K-5 curriculum director formally announced Tuesday that he is running for state school superintendent in 2010.

Richard Woods began his teaching career at Irwin County High School in 1988 as a social studies teacher. He said Tuesday to a crowd of supporters gathered at Ocilla’s community center that the classroom teacher is the “heart of education.”

“I’ve never lost the passion for education,” Woods said. “They may have taken me out of the classroom, but they didn’t take the education out of me.”

Woods’ campaign banners, signs and bumper stickers read “Putting the Heartbeat Back into Education.”

Woods graduated with honors from Fitzgerald High School in the '80s, from Kennesaw State University in 1988 and in 1996 received his degree in educational leadership from Valdosta State University. He said Tuesday that he hopes he wins so that he can represent the entire state.

“South Georgia, rural Georgia is as important as the metro areas,” Woods said.

Woods worked at Kennesaw State and said he has experience living in rural and metropolitan areas of the state and realizes the different needs of various areas of Georgia.

“There are differences, but kids are kids and we’re all Georgians,” Woods said.

Woods and his wife, Lisha, live in Tifton. Woods said he met his wife, then Lisha Booth, on the football field in Irwin County and it was a blind date.

Woods commutes to his job in Ocilla, and his wife has taught at Northside Primary School in Tifton for 28 years. A number of supporters at the reception Tuesday were from Tifton.

Woods told his supporters Tuesday that he “looks to the Bible for inspiration” and each morning he is driving to work in Ocilla he “looks into the eastern sky and there’s always hope.” He said he had been praying about running for the state office for several years.

Woods said the high school drop-out rate for rural areas is too high and that the state funding system “is so rigid.”

“It needs flexibility down on the local level,” Woods said.

Woods said the state’s education system needs accountability and flexibility in order to function properly and that teachers and others in local school systems should be able to share their ideas with policy-makers and those who mandate curriculum.  He said that when those at the state level mandate initiatives that require funding but don’t fund the initiatives, they are assuming locals have the funding when often they don’t.

Common sense, Woods said, is not something that is often used to make decisions about educating the state’s children.

“The curriculum is too broad,” Woods said. “We know that and we need to do the things that make education work.

“You people know what works on the local level.”

Woods said one of the first things he plans to do is create a Web site for his campaign and probably use Facebook as well to let people know about him, his philosophy and his plans.

“I have a large extended family at all corners of Georgia and I plan to also network through the educational system,” Woods said.

Woods said his 14 years of classroom instruction experience and seven years of administrative leadership experience as well as working in the private sector as a purchasing agent for a multi-million dollar firm help him understand the problems of financing and setting priorities.

“My heart and home is and always will be with the Irwin County School system,” Woods said. “The training and wisdom gained throughout the years through my interactions with fellow educators, students and parents is immeasurable."

Woods is the son of Jackie Woods and Juanita Tucker Woods, both from Irwin County. Woods is a member of Northside Baptist Church in Tifton where he serves as an ordained deacon, serves as youth director and writes curriculum for various elementary age church groups. He is a member of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators and serves as Irwin County Elementary School’s representative for that organization.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.