The Georgia High School Association could have a successor to executive director Gary Phillips this week.
The GHSA’s board of trustees is doing interviews for the position Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning and will make a recommendation to the executive committee at the GHSA’s called meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Thomaston-Upson County Civic Center.
Candidates have not been revealed publicly, although it is known that assistant executive director Jay Russell, board of trustees president Glenn White, board member Todd Mobley and executive-committee member Don Corr are among them.
Russell joined the GHSA in 2014, hired by Phillips. Russell had served as athletics director and administrator at LaGrange High for 12 years. Assistant executive directors historically have been groomed to be executive directors, as Phillips held that position when he succeeded Ralph Swearngin.
White is director of student services for the Floyd County Board of Education and previously the principal at Model High. He has served as the board’s president since 2014, when he also was a candidate to succeed Swearngin as executive director. White endorsed removing Phillips as executive director in February amid pressure from the Georgia legislature. Phillips reluctantly agreed to retire effective in June, though will be paid through 2017-18.
Mobley is the principal at Thomasville High and the state coordinator of the Georgia Association of Secondary Public Schools.
Corr, also a candidate for the position in 2014, is the director of personnel staff with Cherokee County Schools. He previously had been supervisor of student activities and athletics with Cherokee schools. He currently is an executive committee member serving Region 6-AAAAAA.
In other business, the executive committee might also vote on a proposal to make it harder for transfer students to gain immediate eligibility at their new schools. The proposal would require that transfers sit out 50 percent of all varsity competitions for one calendar year after moving to their new schools. The sit-out requirement could be waived if the former school grants a waiver.
