The Troup County Board of Education recognized outstanding local teachers Thursday night, and set a date for a public hearing to determine proposed alterations to student attention boundaries. The public hearing will be held April 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Troup High Fine Arts Auditorium, which was determined after the topic was first brought up at Monday’s work session.

Kenneth White, of THINC College and Career Academy, was recognized as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2667 Teacher of the Year. White has won both the district and state VFW competitions, and is in the running for the national VFW Teacher of the Year.

“Each year, every VFW post across the country receives nominations under the title of Teacher of the Year from public, charter and Christian schools,” said board member Cathy Hunt. “This program recognizes America’s best educators, who instill a sense of national pride in their students, by instilling a sense of citizenship, and promoting America’s history and traditions effectively.”

Tom Fetchet, Junior Vice Commander of VFW Post 2667 in Newnan, spoke to the essay written by White.

“We happened to get a very lucky nomination this year,” Fetchet said. “We took advantage of it. Mr. White’s nomination packet was sent to the VFW state level, where he won first place for best teacher against tough competition.”

Randy Hardigree of LaGrange High School was also recognized as the Troup County Schools system-level Teacher of the Year, and was selected from a group of 25 finalists across the school district.

“This exemplary educator was selected from this group of 25 outstanding Teacher of the Year nominees,” Hunt said. “In addition to being named the Troup County School System Teacher of the Year, (Hardigree) will also represent the school system in the 2019-2020 state Teacher of the Year competition.”