Lake Oconee Academy CEO since 2007, Dr. Otho Tucker, has told teachers, students and parents that after next year, he will step back from running the highly successful Greene County Charter School.
“I’ll still be here a certain percentage of time,” he told the Lake Oconee News on Tuesday. “The way it stands right now, I’m going to stay here maybe not as CEO but do special projects.”
Tucker cites the usual reasons for the semi-retirement – he’ll be 70 next year, has grandchildren in North Carolina and Florida he wants to visit and wants to stop working 50 to 60 hours a week. But it appears he will still be a force at LOA.
“If we’re building or adding or changing or remodeling or whatever else we may be doing, I’ll deal with those issues,” he said.
The announcement comes at a crucial time for LOA. It sued the Greene County Board of Education over funding in September 2020. An agreement to end that may be near but still lingers. The school’s charter is up for renewal in 2024, and LOA is taking heat from public groups over test scores.
Also, the person who many thought would be the top candidate to replace Tucker at retirement, Dr. Chris Harth, left LOA last month for a new job in Florida. Tucker has moved quickly to fill the job of Upper School Director.
“We’ve got a great guy, Dr. Brad Bowling, coming in,” Tucker said. “He’s been a high school assistant principal and principal.”
Bowling is currently the Director of Special Education in the Barrow County school system.
Tucker came to Greensboro just as LOA started up as a charter school with a few classes held at a local church in 2007. He survived the normal growing pains and the occasional controversies to build it into an award winning, high scoring PreK – 12 th grade institution with more than 1,050 students.
He and his wife, Cindy, live in Greensboro. They have three children and seven grandchildren according to the LOA website.