Many big decisions are made in Forsyth County’s Board of Education, but the board is most known for electing the superintendent of the school district. In March 2024, Mitch Young was appointed in an unanimous vote as the new superintendent for FCS. Superintendent Young has been an integral part of FCS since 2007 and even worked as an assistant principal at Lambert. As superintendent, Mr. Young has made it his goal to focus on qualified teaching, funding and student interactions. These initiatives, especially building student connections, are at the core of his primary plan of helping students in their educational journey.
The quality of a student’s education relies on the teacher’s abilities to educate and understand students. With Forsyth County’s student population constantly on the rise, the school system needs to ensure that teachers are being hired efficiently to accommodate incoming students. However, it is necessary for them to also be given the adequate resources to accommodate those students. According to Superintendent Young, teachers are a keystone of Forsyth’s school system, so keeping up the quality of teaching is essential.
“If you focus on hiring highly qualified, highly effective teachers, it doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re in a portable or a regular classroom,” Superintendent Young said. “The number one thing for good learning is to make sure you have good teachers; no matter how big our school system gets, we have to recruit and retain the best teachers we can.”
While the superintendent’s responsibilities are numerous, arguably their most impactful responsibility on students is the hiring of qualified teachers.
To properly pay and attract teachers, FCS requires funding from the state and the local area. Superintendents are tasked with evaluating where funding goes and how it should be used. According to Superintendent Young, the amount of funding a school receives is based on various factors, including student population.
“When you look at state funding mechanisms, more money would go to Lambert based on the per pupil cap because Lambert has the most students,” Superintendent Young explained. “When it comes to local money, some of the local money [from taxes] follows the per pupil, but some of the local money then is for facilities.”
Student population is a key aspect that superintendents look at because of the Per Pupil Cap, which allocates funding to public schools based on the number of students enrolled in that school.
Next November, Forsyth County residents will vote on the Special Purpose Local Option Tax (SPLOST) which will give one penny to FCS for every dollar collected in the county. While this seems like a small amount, the revenue generated by this tax allows the county the funds to build schools and add facilities. Mr. Young hopes that voters will vote in favor of the tax to accommodate FCS’s growing needs.
“We’ll be seeing if our voters are willing to extend stakes into the SPLOST Seven [Seventh Election],” Superintendent Young said. “And if they do, then that would provide the money to be able to build expansions on schools, like Lambert, that are overpopulated.”
Another major component of a superintendent’s role is meeting and connecting with students. For Superintendent Young, this part of the job gives him the most satisfaction and reminds him of his love for education.
“I think the most rewarding part of my job is anytime I get to interact with students and hear from them,” Superintendent Young explained. “Any chance I get to do that is a reminder of why we’re even in business. The business of schools is all about the business of students.”
Superintendent Young explains that he can best see his impact not through graphs and charts, but through the students he has directly helped. Through his talks with students, Superintendent Young hopes to gain new perspectives on schooling in the county and improve FCS as a whole.
Becoming superintendent means filling in the shoes left by the previous superintendents, and for Superintendent Young this serves as a reminder for what he has to achieve for FCS’s future students. The responsibilities of managing a school district are not easily said and done. Superintendent Young says the impact he brings to students across the county makes his job worth it. As he continues to make changes to FCS, he hopes to have a positive impact on students now and in the future through funding, student interaction, and qualified teaching.
