Groveport Madison names superintendent
Garilee Ogden will be the next superintendent of Groveport Madison schools, the school board announced at a special meeting Friday.
Ogden, currently Groveport Madison’s director of curriculum, instruction and professional development, will take over as interim superintendent July 1. She’ll then begin a three-year contract as superintendent, at an annual salary of $140,000, beginning Aug. 1. Deputy Superintendent John Hurd has been serving as interim superintendent since February.
Board President Bryan Shoemaker said the board was impressed by Ogden’s track record in the places she’s worked: a teacher and school administrator in New Mexico; a principal in SouthWestern and Dublin schools; and an administrator for the Upper Arlington school district before coming to Groveport Madison in August 2016.
“She shows excellent communication skills,” Shoemaker said. “She shows excellent curriculum skills. Our whole purpose was to find the right person for the right seat. We found the right person.”
When asked about her immediate goals, Ogden said, “Right now, my plan is to get everybody moved into the new high school.” The new $60 million Groveport Madison High School, which has been under construction since 2016, is set to open next school year.
She said that one of her first steps will be to meet with all the department heads and make sure everything is running smoothly. Eventually, she’ll start addressing longer-term needs, such as Ogden crowded schools, by meeting with community members to hear their preferences. Nearly every school building in the district has reached or is beyond its capacity, and students are using modular classrooms at several schools.
“I’m excited for this opportunity,” Ogden said. “There’s such great culture and pride in this community, and there are wonderful things going on here in the district. I’m really looking forward to continuing to support that work.”
Ogden started her career as a newspaper reporter covering education and government in Las Cruces, New Mexico, before going back for a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at New Mexico State University and teaching in an elementary school in Deming, New Mexico.
Ogden, 48, and her husband, Carlos, live in Granville and have two daughters: Cameron, who will be a junior at Ohio State University, and Kennedy, who will be a 10th-grader at Granville High School.
Groveport Madison schools serve just under 6,000 students who live in the city of Groveport, Madison Township and small parts of Pickerington, Reynoldsburg and Columbus in southeastern Franklin County.
The district hired K-12 Business Consulting in March to help it conduct a search after Superintendent Bruce Hoover resigned to deal with a family issue.
There were 29 applicants, from which the board and a committee of residents and staff members selected three finalists: Ogden, Hurd and Carl Metzger, an assistant superintendent in the South-Western schools. The three were invited for a second interview and a meet-and-greet session Wednesday with the staff members and residents.