news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Oak Ridge Military Academy announced its new president on Tuesday , and the name is a familiar one in local academic circles.

Cuyler McKnight will leave his post as executive vice president at GTCC to lead the 157-year-old military school.

McKnight, 61, described the job as one he’s been training for his entire life.

“With the preparation that I’ve had, this is the place I need to be and the time I need to be here,” McKnight said.

McKnight is a retired Army major with 25 years of service. He taught ethics at North Georgia College , his alma mater, and worked as regional manager for Friedman’s Jewelers for eight years before joining GTCC.

McKnight said he’ll draw from all of those experiences to help the school continue its rebuilding process.

“It’s going to take one little success after another,” he said.

The school was on the verge of closing last spring when it ran into financial troubles. Some employees went months without a paycheck. The former board of trustees stepped down along with the former president. Shortly after taking office, members of the new board installed Reginald Ponder as the interim president this summer.

During McKnight’s introduction, the board thanked Ponder for getting the school back in working order.

McKnight said he believes he is coming to a school in much better shape than it was when Ponder found it.

McKnight still has work to do. The school missed its enrollment goal this fall with about 62 students enrolled.

To ensure the school is back on sound fiscal footing and to increase enrollment, McKnight said he intends to build community relationships, strengthen international recruitment and promote the school’s athletics program.

That program includes former Northern High basketball coach Stan Kowalewski, who was not allowed to coach a Guilford County school after an investigation last school year of Northern’s athletics program found several players lived outside the attendance zone.

“I taught ethics. I believe in ethics, and I’ll make sure that everyone on my staff adheres to those ethics,” McKnight said.

Many of the teachers who went without pay last year are back at Oak Ridge this year. Among them is Bobby Barbera, a 43-year veteran of the school.

Barbera said last year was the most difficult of his career, and he wondered if the school would make it. A pessimist by nature, Barbera has found optimism in the current board, Ponder and now McKnight. “He’s coming into a pretty tough situation; I think that says a lot about him.”

McKnight will officially take office Nov. 9.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com