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Natalie A. Gore, 49, of McDonough, has been named the new superintendent of Tift County Schools. Her appointment becomes official following a state-mandated 14-day public comment period.
At its meeting Thursday, the Tift County Board of Education (BOE) named Gore the sole finalist out of 18 applicants for the position.
The BOE said it plans to take formal action on Gore at the end of the month and hopes to have the new superintendent in place by mid-January.
Since October, Dr. Jerry Baker has been serving as interim superintendent, succeeding Adam Hathaway, who resigned after being placed on administrative leave indefinitely. The BOE has given no reason for placing Hathaway on leave. He is being paid through June 30 when his contract is terminated.
Gore told the board and the audience at Thursday's meeting that she's "excited and humble" to be Tift County's next superintendent.
"Ultimately, our public education system is really responsible for ensuring the strength and stability of our community," Gore said.
The school system is tasked with preparing students to go on to higher education and their careers following school, and "instilling in our students that desire to want to give back."
She said the Tift BOE is "very unified," and it is clear the board "wants to ensure student success."
During her 26-year career in education, Gore has experience as a classroom teacher, a principal, a research faculty member at Indiana University, and an associate and assistant school superintendent and in various school-district leadership positions in Henry and Gwinnett counties.
Most recently, Gore was chief strategy, performance & accountability officer in Gwinnett County Public Schools and associate superintendent of performance and accountability in Henry County Schools.
According to the Tift BOE, Gore, as Henry County's assistant superintendent of leadership, supervised and supported the improvement of 14 schools serving more than 10,000 students. As assistant superintendent of learning and performance, she was instrumental in building systems, processes, and instructional resources that contributed to Henry County School’s growth of 11.4 points on the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) in 2019, the Tift BOE said.
Gore began her career as an eighth-grade English language arts teacher in Naperville, Ill. After serving on the research faculty at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, she served as a school principal before assuming district responsibilities for Henry County schools in McDonough.
Gore has a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education from the University of Iowa, a master's of education in educational leadership and administration from National Louis University, a master's of science in literacy from Indiana University, and an educational specialist degree in English education from Indiana University.
She and her husband Martin, a career educator, have three children, one of whom lives in Tift County.
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