By Mary Elizabeth Dial, Staff Correspondent
City of Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton recently received the Outstanding Community Member Award of Excellence from the Alabama Association for Gifted Children. The award and many others were presented at the AAGC Conference at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham.
Mayor Guyton shared the following statement with The Messenger about this recognition:
“I would like to thank Director of Special Education and Special Services Mrs. Sharon Maness and Mrs. Christie Pickard, lead teacher of Gadsden City Schools’ gifted program, who nominated me. This was an honor and a very pleasant surprise.
“Education has been one of the top priorities of both the mayor’s office and the city council. There are approximately 500 jobs open in Etowah County and many are at our auto suppliers. They are good-paying jobs and [provide] a clean, safe work environment. During the summer, we hired many students from Gadsden City and Career Tech for [these] jobs.
“They show up and work. Many of the other kids work for two or three days, and they don’t even come back for their check. This is a big problem. I’m asking the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and older siblings to explain to the students how important it is to show up for work and do a good job.
“The educators can only do so much. We need additional help in developing a good work ethic and responsible attitude in our students.”
Mayor Guyton was the only community member to be recognized at the conference. According to Maness, he was nominated for the honor due to “all his support of the Gifted Program and our school system.”