VALDOSTA — Dr. William “Todd” Cason was sworn in Monday as the new superintendent for Valdosta City Schools.

Cason was sworn in after the board unanimously voted to hire him at a called meeting.

Cason said he intends to build a relationship with the community, staff and work together with them.

“I want to touch base with our administrative team and our staff and my cabinet to identify our strengths and weaknesses for our school system,” Cason said.

Improving the system’s graduation rate was the first goal mentioned by Cason. “Together, I think we’ll establish goals of increasing the graduation rate, making sure the graduation rate continues to improve as it has been for the last couple years,” Cason said.

Cason said he wants to make sure graduating students are career and college ready, and ready to go to the military, or right to work, or to college. “We also want to make sure our kids are reading well, reading on grade level, comprehending well, so we want to look at early literacy,” Cason said. “We want to make sure our pre-K students and K-5 students have a good grasp of literacy, and they can write and articulate well. I think if we start there, all the other things will fall into place.”

Cason has been in education for 22 years, having taught physical science and coached football at Valdosta High School and in Brooks County. Cason has been an assistant principal in Lanier County, and was also an assistant superintendent in the Colquitt County school system.

Cason’s hiring was one of several personnel changes approved by the board.

Other personnel changes included:

• Cheryl Rice, a behavioral specialist, has been transferred to the Central Office;

• Marcus Jordan, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at J.L. Newbern Middle, has resigned;

• Jessica Daly, a pre-kindergarten paraprofessional, has been hired;

• Ida Hublein, a kindergarten paraprofessional, has been promoted;

• Ursula Clark, a special education paraprofessional, has been hired.

The individual personnel recommendations were publicly mentioned in the vote, a copy of the recommendations were given to The Valdosta Daily Times and the recommendations were flashed on the screen during the vote.