Three Hall County elementary schools will have new leaders for the 2008-09 school year.

The Hall County Board of Education voted Monday night to hire Connie C. Daniels as principal of Mount Vernon Elementary School in North Hall.

Daniels has served as principal of New Hope Elementary School in Whitfield County since 2001.

The board also voted to transfer Pat Tilson to principal of Lyman Hall Elementary School south of Gainesville and Matt Alexander to principal of Lula Elementary School.

Tilson is assistant principal at Tadmore Elementary School in East Hall and Alexander is assistant principal at Chicopee Woods Elementary School in southeast Hall.

The principal positions came open after Mount Vernon principal Wayne Colston and Lula Elementary principal Terry Dover announced they were retiring after this school year and Lyman Hall principal Aaron Turpin was named chief technology officer for the district.

Daniels has spent her education career in Whitfield, Murray and Decatur County schools.

She began her career as a reading teacher at Bainbridge Elementary School, where she had previously served as a bookkeeper/secretary.

"It’s safe to say she knows the business from the inside out," said Richard Hill, associate superintendent for human resources.

Before joining the Hall County system in 2005, Alexander worked for nine years as an English for Speakers of Other Languages teacher, among other roles, in Habersham County.

Tilson started in Hall in 2003 as Tadmore assistant principal. Previously, she taught several grades and special education.

Will Schofield, superintendent of the Hall County school system, said Tilson has served this year "almost as an acting principal," as Tadmore principal Joseph Gonsalves has worked with schools this year on "formative assessments" of students.

He told the school board that the district’s "in-house candidates were very strong."

"I’d put them up against anybody," Schofield added.

The Hall school board also OK’d nearly 2,000 teacher and other staff positions throughout the school system and about 100 resignations or retirements of other employees, mostly teachers, for the coming school year.

Also coming on board for next school year is Newton County High School principal Joe Gheesling. He will replace North Hall High School principal Gary Brown, who is retiring.

The school board agreed, as has been past practice, to pay up to $5,000 in moving expenses for Gheesling and Daniels.

The system has assistant principal vacancies at Tadmore, Chicopee Woods, South Hall Middle School and Myers Elementary schools.