The new Long County Board of Education on Monday held its first meeting, electing District 4 representative Janet Watford as its new chairwoman as the first order of business.  
District 3 representative Florence Baggs was re-elected vice chairwoman.  
Other members of the school board are Dennis DeLoach, District 1 (Beard’s Creek); Dr. Carolyn Williamson, District 2 (Rye Patch/Oakdale), Baggs in District 3 (South Ludowici), Watford in District 4 (North Ludowici), and Julie Dawson, District 5 (Tibet).
The board dealt with meeting starting times.  Watford said that she had received several complaints from citizens saying that the 5:30 p.m. starting time for the monthly meeting was too early. After a brief discussion, the board voted unanimously to change the starting time to 6 p.m. Meetings will remain on the second Monday of each month.  
During discussion of the monthly meetings, Superintendent Dr. Robert Waters told board members that prior to their meetings, everything they would be discussing would be shown to them. He said that an issue may arise on the day of the meeting, but that if that occurred, the issue would be highlighted in their packet.
Also during the meeting, the board unanimously approved the hiring of seven teachers, one pre-K teacher and two substitute teachers. In the approval of Misty Rutherford, who was hired as a summer-school teacher, Watford abstained from the vote because the two are sisters. The board also approved Tyler Chambliss and James Butler as assistant baseball coaches, Raven Ervin as an assistant girls’ basketball coach and the resignations of Matt Williams, Shaneen Johnson, Ashley Fralix and Brandy Smiley.
Waters informed new board members that he had set up a training workshop for them through the Georgia School Boards Association on May 20. He said that the training also would go toward their yearly training.