In 1870, William Ruffner was appointed the first State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Superintendent of Public Instruction had supervisory control over all the school divisions in the Commonwealth and the State Board of Education had "complete and final administrative and financial control over the entire system". The first duty of the Board was the selection of county superintendents and district trustees. During the summer of 1870, Superintendent Ruffner screened applicants and nominees and selected, in his view, the best people, then made his recommendations to the State Board.

George W. Holland, a Lutheran minister, was chosen to be the first Rockingham County school superintendent. The Reverend Mr. Holland was born in Churchville in Augusta County on July 16, 1838. He graduated from Roanoke College in 1857, the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1860 and had accepted a call to the Lutheran church in Bridgewater. When war broke out, he enlisted as a private and chaplain and lost an arm in the first battle of Massassas. After recovering and teaching at Roanoke College, he returned to the Valley to accept a call from the Lutheran congregations in Harrisonburg and Bridgewater. In 1870, he accepted the appointment as Superintendent of School while continuing to serve his congregations.

In order to get the school system underway, George Holland devoted a great deal of time to a variety of organizational tasks. In his first report to the State Superintendent (1870-71), he reported that he "had been officially employed during 175 days, had traveled about 900 miles, had written 200 letters, examined 108 teachers and licensed 94, had made 30 public addresses, conducted three meetings of the county school trustees and visited 40 schools."

In his second report (1871-72), he reported that there were 104 schoolhouses in Rockingham County: 51 were built of logs, 47 were of frame construction, 5 were brick and one was built of stone. Only four had outhouses and only 79 had blackboards. He also reported that" the public schools are gradually growing in favor with the masses" and that the quality of the teachers was improving. A two-day teacher institute had been held in April, 1871 with 101 teachers present to hear addresses by such notables as Barnas Sears, the Director of the Peabody Fund, and Major Jed. Hotchkiss. About 20 good schoolhouses had been built by private funds during the 1871-72 school year and other were improved and refurnished.

The operation of the schools in Rockingham County was highly decentralized. The physical care of the schoolhouses and the hiring of teachers was handled by the district board of trustees, consisting of three members appointed by the electoral board. When the district trustees met together they constituted the county school board. "At a meeting of the county board in September, 1872, the trustees were instructed to appoint three men in the neighborhood of each schoolhouse whose duty it shall be to procure a teacher and see to having their respective schools furnished with fuel and all necessary appliances". This decentralized arrangement would continue until 1922, when the district boards were abolished and replaced by a county school board comprised of one representative from each district.

In December of 1872, after laying the groundwork for the Rockingham County school system, Reverend Holland resigned his position to take a teaching position at Newberry College in South Carolina. He taught and later served as president of Newberry College where he died on October 3, 1895

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