Taylor leaves after 10 years on Starkville school board Walter Taylor presided Tuesday night over his last meeting as a member of the Starkville school board. Here Taylor, right, visits with, from left, Walter Gonsoulin, assistant superintendent; Shelton Jones, architect; and Rusty Coats, horticulture teacher at Millsaps Career and Technology Center. / Bonnie Coblentz
Bonnie Coblentz March 3, 2010 11:41:00 AM
Board president Walter Taylor received a send-off party Tuesday night after serving 10 years on the Starkville School District board of directors.
The school district hosted a reception in the Greensboro Center before the regularly scheduled board meeting. Current and past board members, central office staff, teachers, family and friends came to wish Taylor well.
Superintendent Judy Couey called it “a mixed emotion occasion” as she thanked him for his service.
“When you serve on a school board, your life has been irrevocably changed,” Couey said, referring to the time it takes and the demands it places on family and schedules.
She said the $200 a month a school board members is paid does nothing to compensate them for their actual time spent working for the district.
School board members “are about a community and they are about children,” Couey said. “They are the ultimate optimists ... because they choose to invest time, talents and their lives to our children.”
Taylor spoke briefly of his time on the board, thanking by name those he served with. He said he is grateful for the opportunity, and he thanked the school district for the education it provided his daughter and is providing his grandchildren.
“We’ve come far, but we will always have much to do,” Taylor said.
