Boykin Promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Business Services at Board of Education

Veland Appointed Interim Principal

Brad Boykin, a principal in the Bulloch County School System, has been promoted to assistant superintendent of business services, as part of personnel recommendations approved unanimously by the Board of Education during its called session on May 23rd.

“I am appreciative to Superintendent Charles Wilson and the Board of Education for giving me the opportunity to carry on amazing work at the district level,” Boykin said.

Boykin, who has been an administrator at Southeast Bulloch Middle School (SEBMS) for six years, was selected from a pool of well qualified applicants from inside and outside the district. Todd Veland, Ed.D., a veteran administrator and a current school improvement director for the district, will serve as SEBMS’s interim principal for the 2023-2024 school year until a new administrator is hired.

Boykin will assume his new role on June 1st, following the retirement of his predecessor, Troy Brown, who served the district for 29 years. The Office of Business Services oversees the district’s transportation, school nutrition, accounting, procurement, payroll, facilities maintenance, information technology, school safety, and human resources departments.

Boykin, a 15-year educator, has served Bulloch County Schools since 2014, when he first came to the district to teach fourth-grade math at Sallie Zetterower Elementary School after teaching six years in Screven County. This summer he will defend his dissertation in order to complete his doctorate in education leadership from Georgia Southern University. This will make him a quadruple Eagle, as he also obtained a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, a master’s degree in instructional technology, and a specialist degree in educational leadership from the University.

During his time as a classroom teacher, Boykin served as a grade-level chairman and was active in school improvement teams, school councils and school safety committees. He was accepted to Bulloch County Schools’ Aspiring Leaders program in its second cohort, which met from April 2016 to February 2017. He completed the program which is designed to prepare and support employees who aspire to future leadership roles within the school district.

As a school-level administrator, Boykin successfully managed the business and education operations of the district’s third largest school, with a student enrollment of nearly 800 and a staff of 80. He led data analysis training for teachers to help them identify and better address the academic needs of students. He also dealt with student discipline, building and grounds, school safety and helped work toward school improvement goals. Throughout his tenure at Southeast Bulloch Middle, the school experienced academic gains in mathematics, English language arts, science, and social studies. He is an experienced supervisor that has recruited new and veteran teachers to support the fastest growing area of our community.

Boykin had the opportunity to personally introduce Dr. Veland to the SEBMS faculty and staff on May 26th during a faculty meeting at the school. Veland, who has 11 years of experience as a school principal and district school improvement director, came to Bulloch County in 2019, to lead the district’s multi-tiered system of supports after serving 18 years in Evans County as a teacher and administrator. He served as principal of Claxton Elementary School for four years, Claxton High School for two years, and the interim principal for Langston Chapel Middle School during the 2020-2021 school year.

Other Leadership Announcements

Three of the district’s four middle schools will have new principals for the 2023-2024 school year. At its April 13th meeting the Board of Education approved the hiring of Willie Robinson, Ed.D., to be LCMS’s principal and John McAfee, Ed.D., to be William James Middle School’s principal beginning July 1st.

Other personnel recommendations which were also approved unanimously by the Board of Education during its called session on May 23rd, included Desiree Yaeger as school nutrition director and Joshua Mattos as technology director. At the Board’s April 27th work session, Dawn Tysinger, Ed.D. was approved to fill the newly created position of executive director of student wellness and support, along with Jeff Tysinger, Ph.D., NCSP, to replace Leslie Schlierf, the retiring executive director of special education, in a retitled role as the executive director of compliance and program evaluation.

Georgia Southern Announces Huggins, Ph.D., as New Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics

Michael Huggins, Ph.D., will join Georgia Southern University on August 1st as the Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics.

“I am excited to welcome Dr. Huggins to our academic leadership,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Carl Reiber, Ph.D.

“Dr. Huggins has a distinguished career filled with research, service and mentorship. He will be a valuable partner as we move forward with our leadership goals. He brings with him the working knowledge of how to lead a college, along with the foundations needed to advance our research mission.”

Huggins comes to Georgia Southern from Tarleton State University, where he has served as a dean since 2020. He led three academic departments with nine undergraduate degree programs and three master’s degree programs.

While serving as dean at Tarleton State, Huggins established a $15 million College of Science and Mathematics (COSM) fundraising initiative. He also led efforts to improve COSM First-Time-In-College (FTIC) retention rates resulting in an improvement from 67.3% COSM FTIC retention for the Fall 2019 cohort to 71.7% retention rate for the Fall 2021 COSM FTIC cohort; a 6.5% improvement in just two years.

“I am excited to join the Georgia Southern team,” Huggins said. “I look forward to working with the faculty and staff to develop initiatives that support the growth of the College of Science and Mathematics and to ensure the success for all students during their time at the University and beyond.”

Huggins holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of West Florida, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Nevada, Reno and completed his postdoctoral at University of Texas at Austin. He is also a graduate from the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. S

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