Randall won't seek re-election to school board

Over the years, Avon Park resident Wally Randall has been a board member of a number of organizations and entities in the City of Charm and Highlands County.

From fireworks to the Red Cross to the YMCA, and from the Firefighter's Pension Board to Rotary to the School Board of Highlands County, Randall has been the definition of an involved citizen and official.

But now the three-term member of the School Board of Highlands County plans to not seek reelection, to focus solely on his efforts as the executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Highlands County.

With 400 kids in the Boys and Girls Club, "It makes a difference in your day-to-day, week-to-week and year-to-year life," Randall said at Tuesday's school board meeting.

He noted that a few months ago he ended his involvement with the Avon Park Fireworks Committee, which he had chaired for many years.

"I'm announcing tonight that I won't seek re-election to the school board in 2010," he said.

"I going to devote the rest of my work history, whatever time I have left, to getting the Boys & Girls Club on solid footing," Randall said, so when he eventually retires from the club, "that the person I turn it over to they won't be in a hole like we were two years ago when I took over."

Randall said he was at a fork in the road, and after a lot prayer, he felt this was the right way for him to go to make an impact on the community for the foreseeable future.

Speaking to his fellow school board members, Randall said, "a lot of you all have been here before I got here and you'll be here after I leave and it has been one heck of an experience. I would not have traded it for the world.

"But we still got to roll up our sleeves because we have got some big challenges ahead of us this next year."

Randall has served on the School Board of Highlands County, representing District 1 (Avon Park and the northwest corner of the county), since 1998.

At the school board's annual reorganization meeting on Nov. 17, he was selected by the board to serve one year as its chairman.

"I'm encouraging whoever decides to run for my open seat to do it for the right reason and that's 'community involvement,' no other reason. Try to step forward and make a difference," Randall said.