Business is booming at The Oaks at Hall County's Lanier Career Academy in Oakwood, so much so that the county school board is looking for a full-time event coordinator for the facility.
Hall County School Superintendent Will Schofield had told school board members recently that the growing number of meetings and seminars at The Oaks was too much for part-time coordinators to handle, so he suggested the full-time event/marketing coordinator position. The position is funded in the FY 2017 budget, approved this past Monday, June 27.
David Moody, the Executive Director for Lanier Career Academy, said in a phone interview late last week that hiring someone to attract business to The Oaks is a win-win situation for industry and for students.
"It's [The Oaks] is being used by local community businesses as well as our school system, but it has the opportunity to be a premiere events center in the Northeast Georgia area," Moody said. "We're really excited about the opportunity to become an employer of our students...it's an opportunity for them to be employed while we continue to coach and work with them while we help develop them for the future."
Lanier Career Academy gives students real-life experience in the culinary arts, hospitality and marketing industries. The current facility on Tumbling Creek Drive off Atlanta Highway opened in 2004.
Moody said the plan is to expand the event offerings at the facility.
"This past year we actually had a wedding or two there and we hope to have more weddings in the future," Moody said. "One of our staff that just came on board that works in our hospitality program...has a background in wedding events, and that's her goal, to help build the wedding portion of [the program]."
Moody said The Oaks is really one of the best-kept secrets in the county, and he hopes hiring the event coordinator will solve that issue.
"What we're really trying to do is get this position to be one where they would work with the Chamber, work within the community and local businesses," Moody said. "When people find out about it and come, they're just so impressed because the students get to work the event and they get to interact with the students."
Moody said the event coordinator job is a 12-month position with the idea that the facility would be busy in the summer, as well. When that happens, there's the opportunity for summer employment for students.
Moody said the goal is to hire the person to fill the job in July, so that he or she can be ready to work at the start of the new school year.
For more information on the job, you can check the Hall County School System website.
