County board honors victims by re-naming playground
With the support of state and school officials, the Franklin County School board approved the name of the future playground at Phil Campbell Elementary School that will honor the memory of a teacher and two students the school lost in to the April 27 tornado.
The “Gentry-Knox-Mojica Playground” will be named in memory of Patricia Gentry, a beloved second-grade teacher; fourth-grader Ethan Knox; and third-grader Edgar Mojicia.
The playground is a project that PCES Principal Jackie Ergle and Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow have been working on since the tornado ruined the current playground at the school.
Several organizations have donated money towards the project that Ergle said “will help the kids feel a sense of normalcy at school.”
“Even though these kids will still have to drive through the destruction, we want the school to be a happy place for them to come to,” Ergle said.
Ergle told Superintendent Gary Williams and members of the school board how much it would mean to have the playground named after the people they lost who meant so much to them.
The “Gentry-Knox-Mojicia Playground” will be officially dedicated at a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.
In other business, the Franklin County School Board approved the following changes in personnel for the 2011-2012 school year:
• Accepted the retirement of Hoyt Pounders as a bus driver for Phil Campbell School
• Accepted the resignation of Melanie Kennedy as an in-school suspension/remediation aide at Red Bay School
• Accepted the resignation of Marion Beasley as the part-time music teacher/band director at Vina High School
• Transferred Ina Taylor from Belgreen High School to a fourth-grade teacher at Tharptown Elementary School
• Transferred Jennifer Oliver from Belgreen High School to a fifth-grade teacher at Red Bay High School
• Transferred Melissa Cox from upper elementary to lower elementary at Belgreen High School
• Transferred Dana Hill from a third-grade teacher to a first-grade teacher at Belgreen high School
• Transferred Robynn Bragwell from full-time administrator
to half-time administrator and half-time classroom teacher at Belgreen High School
• Transferred Tracy Holaway from half-time special education teacher at Phil Campbell High School and half-time special education teacher at East Franklin Junior High to a full-time special education teacher at East Franklin Junior High
• Transferred Alicia Duncan from a temporary, half-time special education teacher/half-time special education aide to a full-time special education teacher at Tharptown Elementary School
• Transferred Tracey Cook from a fourth-grade teacher to a reading coach at Phil Campbell Elementary School
• Transferred Brittany Sykes from a kindergarten teacher to a fourth-grade teacher at Phil Campbell Elementary School
• Transferred Tessa Benford from a classroom reduction teacher to a second-grade teacher at Phil Campbell Elementary School
• Transferred Fran Nabers from a fifth-grade teacher to a fourth-grade teacher at Red Bay School
• Transferred Lori Harris from a second-grade teacher to a fourth-grade teacher at Red Bay School
• Transferred Julie Bolton from a fourth-grade teacher to a fifth-grade teacher at Red Bay School
• Transferred Trisha Humphres from a fourth-grade teacher to a third-grade teacher at Red Bay School
• Transferred Kelli Gilbert from JAG specialist at Tharptown High School to half-day physical education teacher at Tharptown Elementary School
• Transferred Tina Little from a bus driver for Russellville City Schools to a bus driver for Tharptown School
• Hired Terry Hall as a part-time power equipment teacher at the Franklin County Career Technical Center
• Hired Chase Cochran as a special education teacher with coaching duties at Vina High School
• Hired Katina Petree as a special education aide at Tharptown Elementary School
• Hired Laura Guidry as a special education aide at Tharptown Elementary School
• Hired Jay Stanley as a business education teacher at Tharptown High School
• Hired Ashley Grimes as a pre-k teacher aide at East Franklin Junior High
• Hired Jill Hester as a pre-k teacher at East Franklin Junior High
• Hired Dustin Silas as a math teacher at Vina High School
