NEVER AT A LOSS FOR WORDS. Mineral Springs Ele-mentary School principal Jeanie Gorham tells a tale about retiring school district treasurer Sammy Jackson, last Tuesday, whens the district board presented Jackson a plaque in appreciation of his long service with the district. Gorham was moved to the position of federal program coordinator and keeper of records during the board’s regular meeting for January. Jackson was honored at a public reception, Thursday.

Sammy Jackson’s hearing loss is nearly complete. The veteran school district treasurer is  retiring after 46 years with the Mineral Springs School District. He and his wife, Ann, were on hand Monday night at the January meeting of the school board.

There was cake, and presentation of a plaque. Jackson obviously couldn’t hear the words of praise said by each board member in turn. However, he could not help but know what they were saying just by the facial expressions which told how they felt about him and his long service to the district.

Jackson was honored later in the week in a public retirement reception in the school cafeteria, but this was a night for the board to convey its respects.

Later in the meeting, the board voted unanimously to have business office employee Frankie Darr take duties of district business manager.

Other personnel moves included:

Moving veteran elementary school principal Jeanie Gorham to federal program coordinator and keeper of records. She will be replaced by Saratoga Elementary Principal Charles Hanson who will serve as principal at both schools for the remainder of the school year.

Other personnel moves: Marla Williams to district bookkeeper; Lizann Bell from part-time to full-time to replace Lemerl Crosslyn in technology. Crosslyn resigned.

The personnel changes came after an executive session lasting 55 minutes.

Other items before the board:

The board unanimously approved a Gifted Talented program plan as required by the state board of education.

The board approved purging several pages of fixed assets as proposed by interim Supt. Bill Blackwood who told the board that the items needed to be purged in order to be taken off inventory audit lists. Blackwood also gave the district financial report.

Blackwood told the board that the state department of education would conduct a two-hour workshop for teachers related to the district being placed on ‘fiscal distress.’

Board members present for the meeting included: William Dixon, Dale Gathright, Jr., Dornell Trotter, Joann Walker, Linda Ross and board president Mike Erwin.