Meet Monroe County Superintendent Dr. Jim Finch

The Monroe County School District begins August 1 for students.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Monroe County School District is preparing for a new school year under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Jim Finch.

Finch began his tenure as superintendent in June 2023, following the retirement of Dr. Mike Hickman. Finch brings more than three decades of experience in public education, having served as a teacher, coach, principal, and assistant superintendent—most notably spending 15 years as principal of Mary Persons High School.

Dr. Finch spoke with 41NBC about his continued vision for the 2025–26 school year, prioritizing student achievement, strong family engagement, and fostering safe, supportive school environments that help every student thrive.

MONICA- Welcome back. We have Monroe County School Superintendent Dr. Jim Finch joining us. Thank you for being here today.

JIM- Thank you for having me.

MONICA-  I’m excited you guys start this Friday. Big news for Monroe County. So I want to ask a few questions. You know, you took over in 2023 as Superintendent, which is incredible. As head of the district, what should your community know, your board and educators, what should they expect from your leadership style this year?

JIM- Well, I think at the heart of what I do is teaching and learning. And so when people look at me, they need to look at me as being that teacher that I used to be when I taught math or, you know, I was a coach at one time. People need to see me as an assistant principal or a principal. I’ve always thought that if my leadership kept it all about what’s best for students, then I was always going to be doing the right thing regardless of whatever role I was in.

MONICA- Right. I love that mentality. Now how do you recruit and retain new educators within your district? How does that work out for you guys?

JIM- Well, you obviously have to recruit and retain the people that you already have in the district. So you always want to be able to make sure that you treat your employees the way you’re supposed to treat them and value them. But at the same time, we always want to recruit new blood in there as well. And so we host our own job fairs every year, and then we visit the colleges and universities to go and recruit.

MONICA- How that turned out for you guys so far?

JIM- Oh, it’s very well. We actually hired 29 new teachers this year due to growth. And we’ve grown a lot since 2020. We’ve grown probably 600 students. And so we’ve had to add more teachers. And so we actually have 29 new teachers coming in who are not replacing anyone in Monroe County. And so that’s always a challenge to do that. But fortunately, we live in a community, in a district that values education and and a lot of people already know that. And so it’s easy for us to kind of recruit and and get new people in there.

MONICA- That is incredible. 29 new teachers. Now, you do have a reputation of being an academically sound district. You hear positive reviews about Monroe County. And so I have to ask, what do you attribute to that ongoing success? You’ve been there since 2023. Success has grown. What do you attribute all that to?

JIM- We have really good teachers. And, you know, data is real clear about a student’s experience or better student outcomes are due to the teachers. And that’s what we have. We have really good teachers in Monroe County. We also have really good administrators running those buildings. But we live in a community, again, the values are strong education and I’m just blessed to be there.

MONICA- That is incredible. Now, have you identified any areas of urgent concern for this upcoming school year?

JIM- Well, due to the growth that we’ve had, we’re running out of space in our facilities. And so we were at capacity and a lot of areas were overcapacity. We also have a lot of deferred maintenance that we need to take care of, and we’re building a lot of new facilities right now. We’re about to open a new college and career academy, and we’re about to open a new freshman campus and we’re really excited about what those opportunities are going to mean for our students.

MONICA- Alright. Lastly, what do you want your district to know about you this upcoming school year? What do they need to know about you as a Superintendent?

JIM- Well, just know that we’re always going to do what’s best for our students. And we’re always trying to improve our our experiences for our students and our outcomes for our students. And again, we’re really excited about the expanded CTAE opportunities that we’re going to have with our new college and career academy. And we really think that’s going to be exciting for our community to see.