From the commission chambers to the classroom

Most folks familiar with George Oliver III know him as a commissioner for the city of Ocoee.

But now, Oliver is taking on a new title that couldn’t make him prouder: schoolteacher.

Oliver is the new computer education teacher at Horizon West Middle School. It’s a position that Oliver has been looking forward to for a while, he said.

“This is something that I’ve always wanted to do,” Oliver said. “I started reaching out to Orange County Public Schools last year to figure out what kind of certifications I need to get, and just kind of looking around, meeting some of the principals and figuring out what I wanted to do. 

“When the opportunity became available, this is something that seemed to be a perfect fit for me,” he said. “Most of the programs that I endorse and that I try to champion in the city of Ocoee center around kids, so I figured what better way — I’m five years off of retirement — to retire than to retire doing something you love?”

This will be Oliver’s first full-time teaching job, but it’s something that has been in the works for several years.

Oliver dabbled in teaching GED math when he took a three-month furlough a few years ago. Just that short time in the classroom made him realize that teaching was something he’d like to do before he retired.

Along with the decision to teach came the question of what exactly it was that he wanted to teach. That answer came easily.

Since his time in the U.S. Navy, Oliver always has been involved with technology. In the Navy, he worked with electronics and cyber security before making his way into civilian life, where he served as the network administrator for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The job came with some perks, including working with a tech giant such as Microsoft.

“The highlight of that was not necessarily just working for the Jaguars, but I was working with Microsoft and Bank of America while I was working with the Jaguars,” Oliver said. “And we had a pilot program to introduce the Olympic Committee to smart value cards — which are cards with microchips in them that store value. They turned around, and they sold it to the Olympic Committee … for the Olympics in ’94.”

Although his time in the corporate world is a bit of a different field than what he’ll be doing in the classroom, not everything will be foreign, Oliver said. 

Even though the school year won’t start the way he envisioned, Oliver said he is ready to adapt.

“Being in corporate America, things shift, they move and they contort daily — all the time — and we have to be fluid enough to be able to follow and meet the expectations, not only of the company, but the clients we serve in the corporate world,” Oliver said. “As far as things moving around and changing, I’m used to that — that’s something that I’ve been doing for the past 25 years.”

As Oliver begins the school year, he is most excited about having a positive impact on his students.

“For me, it’s not about the money,” Oliver said. “The most important thing to me is being able to leave a legacy — a legacy of service to the community and to our kids.”