Houston Co. BOE recognizes its area schools’ honors

At Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting of the Houston County Board of Education, which was streamed live for virtual public viewing, the board took the time to recognize several recent honors that had been received by Houston County educators and students, beginning with Director of Student Services Dr. Jenny Milward, who was recently presented the Jim Puckett Outstanding Educator Award by the Georgia Council of Administrators of Special Education. This award is reserved for individuals that personify the leadership qualities modeled by GAEL’s (Georgia Association of Education Leaders) third executive director, Dr. Jim Puckett.

According to Houston County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Scott, “Dr. Milward has worked in the field of special education for 28 years to include 27 of those years in our district, and we are very thankful for her service. As a token of our appreciation, she will be given a certificate and our 150th anniversary coin. So, congratulations to Dr. Milward.”

As a part of the Superintendent’s Report, Scott also mentioned that the Georgia Department of Education had released the 2020 graduation rates and our district’s rate was listed as 89.6%, which is 5.8% points higher than the state’s overall graduation rate of 83.8%.

“A total of 1,924 students graduated from our district this year,” Scott announced. “Our teachers and administrators at all levels contribute toward our ultimate goal of graduation. I’m especially proud of Veterans High School who saw a gain over last year’s rate of almost eight percentage points. And the fact that all five of our high schools continue to outperform the state is outstanding.”

Additionally, the superintendent mentioned that the school nutrition program was recognized nationally for the “pizza pick-up nights” offered to the community this past summer. The initiative was selected as one of seven Best Concept Awards nationwide by “Food Management Magazine.”

Scott said, “This was a great gift to our community, and it was accomplished with a lot of hard work by many people. Congratulations to our school Nutrition Director, Mrs. Meredith Potter, and all her team members for this accomplishment.” Scott further stated, “I also want to extend a congratulations to Stephen Thublin being honored with the 2020 Outstanding School Business Official Award by the Georgia Association of School Business Officials. The recognition is surely deserved, so thank you, Stephen, for your hard work.”

Scott went on to mention that two Houston County students have been selected for State School Superintendent, Richard Woods for 2020-2021 Student Advisory Council. He congratulated Sejal Patel, a junior at Houston County High and Brenley Fouse, a senior at Perry High School.

Finally, with the meeting taking place the day before Veteran’s Day, Scott took a moment to recognize Board Chairman Fred Wilson for being one who had served his country.

“Mr. Wilson, thank you for your services in the U.S. Air Force,” Scott said. “Across our community, we are very thankful for all of our veterans, to include many of our teachers, staff and their spouses. So, thank you to our veterans.”

After all reports were unanimously approved, the meeting was adjourned.

HHJ News