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The Linden Board of Education hired new school employees and transferred current ones for the 2019-2020 school year at a meeting on Monday.

Superintendent Timothy Thurman said that the board’s head start in hiring for the upcoming school year leaves them with just a few positions still open. “We’ve almost filled every position because we started early.”

Travis Lockett will lead the Linden High School Patriots as head football coach and athletic director. He was also transferred from his position of Linden Elementary School’s physical education teacher to the same position at LHS. Chelisia Dukes will join Lockett at LHS as a general science teacher. The high school’s librarian Marnise Stevenson will now be serving as the school’s counselor, as well.

G.P. Austin Junior High School will be welcoming Jill Tutt as an English language arts teacher in the new school year, and Brittany James will join LES as a kindergarten teacher. Ashely Gavin will serve as the elementary school’s special education teacher.

The board also hired Sandra Lewis as the new CNP manager.

Board member Donte’ Dukes abstained from voting on C. Dukes’ and Lewis’ hiring.

During the meeting, Thurman also gave a principal’s report for LES, saying that the school has had a good year and testing for the year is complete. He plans to get the results back and compare them to the state averages in the coming months.

“I’m really encouraged by what we’ve seen so far at the elementary school,” he said.

Thurman also shared that softball and baseball will be returning the high school’s sports roster next school year after a 25-year absence.

“There was a lot of excitement,” he said. “The students wanted to get into it.”

GPA Principal Walter Hampton said the junior high school has also had a good year and that students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades have enjoyed recent field trips. Graduation for junior high students was held Monday, as well.

Football practice for the junior high school team is also being modeled after that of the high school team.

“We want it to be a reflection of the high school program so when the students get to ninth grade, they can hit the ground running,” Hampton said.

Other actions taken by the board include:

• approving the Letter of Intent for Retirement from Canary Howard.

• approving a four-day work week for the summer for the 12-month employees.

• approving the financial statements for April 2019.

The Linden Board of Education meets at the central office on the fourth Monday of each month at 4 p.m.

(This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, May 22 issue of the Demopolis Times.)