Last meeting for two Gainesville School Board members

GAINESVILLE - It was the last meeting for two long time Gainesville School Board members Monday night.

Lee Highsmith and Frank Harben chose not to run for re-election.

Highsmith, ending her 12-year term as Chairwoman, said she decided to serve on the board because of her five children.

"Over the past 12 years my reasons have grown to embrace the 6,000 children that are part of our Gainesville City School family," she said.

Harben ended eight years on the board with his final meeting.

"There will be some things I won't miss there will be lots of things I do, particularly the people," Harben said.

Highsmith and Harben drew high comments from fellow board members as the Monday session closed.

David Syfan said he appreciated their service; Kelvin Simmons said they 'stood tall' when the tough decisions needed to be made.


NEW SCHOOL CALENDER

Gainesville Schools Assistant Superintendent Dr. Shirley Whitaker said there are no differences between the city's school calendar for 2008-2009 and the Hall County schedule.

Board members said they wanted to look a revising the calendar to provide break day for teachers in October and Dr. Whitaker said she'll have a revised calendar ready after Christmas break in January.

"I'm going to bring the calendar that we have tonight and another calendar showing a holiday for teachers in October," she said.

School begins next August 7th for city students and ends May 21st, 2009 and there are 23 student teacher holidays during the school term.

SEARCH FOR SYSTEM AD

Gainesville School Board members voted to give Superintendent Dr. Steve Ballowe the go-ahead to look for a system wide athletic director.

Ballowe asked board members to authorize the search to fill the new position.

"Where a traditional athletic director has focused on middle school and high school, we're going to be looking for someone who can do, middle, elementary, and high school."

Ballowe said the system is looking for an athletic director who can get involved with the community and build a program in which athletes become mentors for younger students.