The Orange County Schools Board of Education has appointed Dr. Randy Bridges to serve as the district’s superintendent on an interim basis.

The board made that decision at a meeting on Monday night. Bridges’ appointment is effective July 1, and he is expected to serve until the board finds a permanent replacement for Doctor Todd Wirt. Wirt announced earlier this year that he was intending to step down at the end of June.

“He’s a fantastic man and a seasoned superintendent that I think will provide some good, stable leadership right now,” Wirt said in an interview after the announcement.

Wirt worked for Bridges when both were in the Alamance – Burlington School System.

Bridges will take over the school district while several “irons are in the fire,” as Wirt described it.

“We’re in the middle of student reassignment and planning for that, still on schedule and still with the goal of having something in front of the board by mid-to-late fall for them to consider,” Wirt said. “A lot of work going on behind the scenes, a lot of work publicly as well around redistricting. It’s been a long time since that’s been done in Orange County.”

Redistricting conversations seem to always draw concerns from parents as students could be shifted to new schools.

“The reality is we have some explosive growth in downtown Hillsborough and in the Mebane part of Orange County,” Wirt said. “We have some overcapacity elementary schools and some under-enrolled elementary schools. Before we can be fiscally responsible and go ask for a new school, I think we felt like we need to fill the schools that we have.”

Wirt said this would also be an opportunity to look at the socio-economic demographics of each school to provide more “balance.”

Beyond navigating the redistricting debate, “continuing to work with the board and their relationship with each other and how they move forward will be important.”

There are also several major capital projects in the pipeline for the school district, Wirt said.

Bridges previously served as the superintendent of Orange County Schools from 1997 to 2002. The school board is working with the North Carolina School Boards Association in the search for a permanent superintendent.

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