Superintendent Rentz To Retire

At Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, Jeff Davis County School Superintendent Dr. Stan Rentz announced his retirement at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.
Rentz thanked the board members for the confidence they placed in him adding that he was honored to have served as School Superintendent and was thankful to the board members and the public for their support.
Board Chairman Roger Ogilvie said Rentz had informed the board a few months back of his intention to retire, adding that board members did not know he was leaving, and did not ask him to retire. He said in succeeding former Superintendent Dr. Rob Brown in June, 2016, Rentz took the job and the school system never missed a beat. Ogilvie said Rentz had done a fantastic job.
“We’re not only losing a superintendent,” he said. “We’re all losing a friend …. not losing but relocating.”
Monday’s meeting began with the usual first-of-the-year appointments, reelecting Ogilvie as chair and Andy Ramay as vice-chair.
Local Attorney Lamar Elder was reappointed the board’s attorney for local issues and the legal firm of Harbin and Hartley was reappointed to handle state affairs.
Jeff Davis Middle School Principal Doug Alexander recognized students who scored the highest on their Lexile scores, which measure reading, reading comprehension, etc. Sixth grader Miles Rowland, seventh grader Mitchell Wood and eighth grader Kerington Reed were all reading on the equivalent of 11th and 12th grade.
Alexander also recognized students who had the most improvement in math over the first half of the year. They were sixth grader Alonte’ Austin, seventh graders Jada Bloodworth, Dukes Stone and Ja’lania Moore, and eighth grader John Varnadoe.
In staff recognition, School Nutrition Assistant Diane Batten was named winner of the WOW award in an emotional presentation. She was honored for her personal connections with students, including her seeing to it that each child received a gift at Christmas by purchasing gifts for the entire class. Middle School teacher Anna Gilbert was awarded the Extra Mile Award.
In other action, the board ….
…. approved procedures for an audit of the food nutrition program.
…. approved paying the bills.
…. heard from Finance Director Betty Corbitt who said E-SPLOST collections were looking a lot better.
…. held a long closed session to discuss personnel and compensations.
…. approved recommendations to hire bus driver Anita Herndon bus driver, part-time bus monitor Maria Lopez, primary school special education paraprofessional Grace Conlon and community wrestling coach Zack Pitts.
…. accepted the resignations of Janice Brown, Ann Dawson and Charles Westman, effective at the end of the school year.
…. accepted the retirement of Ruby Carelock, Diane Luke, Kaye Daniel, and Dr. Rentz.
…. approved the elementary school Junior Beta Club to attend the national convention in June.
…. adopted a bus driver salary scale.