Baggett Assumes Full Duties At OSSD

July 8, 2004

By BEN GARRETT
Independent Herald Editor

As he prepares to meet the challenges before him, Henry Baggett is ready to get started.

In his first full week on the job as the new director of schools at the Oneida Special School District, Baggett took time last week to sit down with the Independent Herald and discuss his appointment as the OSSD's director of schools.

"I've been very impressed with the job (former director) Mr. (Mayfield) Brown did, as well as the staff, and where they have taken the school system," Baggett said. "Where we want to take it, and the challenge I've been given, is to take it to the next level and expand on those successes that the school system has had."

Baggett, who comes to Oneida from Camden, South Carolina, where he served as assistant school superintendent for the Kershaw County School District for seven years, is upbeat about his new position.

"I'm excited about the opportunity and I look forward to the challenge of working with the school district," he said.

But, he added, the best way to approach the job is to settle into it.

"My style is, I want to take the next few months as we start the new school year and get to know the people, see where we are, establish some sort of baseline and then set our goals for where we want to go," he said.

But if first impressions are any indication, Baggett has inherited a sound situation.

"My impression of the school system, of everything I have seen and the people I have met, I am very impressed," he said. "They have very good test score results, and the people I have met have been outstanding. I've been very pleased with the quality of the people.

"The biggest positive that I have seen at this point is the quality of the staff, here at the central office and the people I've been able to meet in the schools," he added.

While Baggett's previous school district was substantially larger than the Oneida Special School District - Kershaw County School District consists of about 10,000 students - he says that the move to a smaller system won't be much of a change, after all.

"This is very much the type of system I am used to," he said. "The system I came from was a large system but I mainly worked in the rural area, and the high school I was principal of only had 400 students.

"I'm just comfortable in a small-town atmosphere. That's what I wanted and that's what made (this job) attractive to me."

Baggett added that there were several factors that made the OSSD job appealing.

"The community itself was a factor, when I came up here and just met people," he said. "And also the quality of the board. It's an outstanding board and really an unusual board in that there's a lot of experience there."

Baggett said that his initial experiences in the community have been pleasing.

"I've had some opportunity to get around and just going to Wal-Mart and different places in Oneida, the people have been very friendly and extremely nice to me and my family. Everywhere we have gone, everyone we have met have just been extremely nice to us."

Baggett was hired by the Board of Education at its May meeting after being selected from among three finalists that included Blount County's David Cook and Dr. Jim Duncan of Wilson County.

At that meeting, Board member Brom Shoemaker, who had taken an impromptu trip to Camden, said that he had found from interviewing several of Baggett's coworkers and acquaintances that he was "a very good educator," "a good Christian family man," and "an excellent problem solver."

Baggett and his wife of 27 years, Cindy, have two sons: Joseph, who will be a freshman at Oneida High School this fall, and Timmy, who will be a fifth grader at Oneida Elementary School.

news@ihoneida.com

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