Ernie Phillips bounces on his feet, leans forward to stare at band members, calls for softer or louder as students practice for the spring concert Tuesday. It will be the last concert of Phillips’ 35-year career in Hall County — the last 28 at West Hall High School.

“That was almost really good,” he tells the band members after replaying a piece of music.

West Hall’s Band of Silver and its director are known throughout Georgia in the band world. He may be one of the few educators with a stretch of road named for him. A section of McEver Road in front of the school was renamed in 2010 as Ernie Phillips Parkway.

A street sign with that designation leans against the wall in Phillips’ office. Phillips said a parent of a senior talked with the principal, a group appealed to the county commission and the designation occurred.

“It was the funniest thing ever, and a total surprise. It was a big honor,” he said.

Phillips has a long list of honors. His bands have had consistent superior ratings for concert and marching bands through the Georgia Music Educators Association.

In 2001, he received the John Philip Sousa Foundation Legion of Honor award. Phillips has held several positions in the GMEA and was the principal tubist of the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra from 1981 until it dissolved in 2011. He was the county teacher of the year in 2000.

Helen Dunn, the librarian at West Hall, noted, “Ernie, Clara Savage and I are the last of what the first principal of West Hall High School, Dr. Jack Pirkle, called the ‘charter’ members.”

“Little did we know 28 years ago that Ernie would become one of the most revered band directors in the county and state. ... I am proud to finally ‘graduate’ from high school with my longtime friend and colleague,” she said in an email. Dunn also is retiring at the end of the school year.

“I’ve never had a job. They pay me to go play music and hang out with teenagers,” Phillips said he told his neighbor, and now school board member, Bill Thompson.

He always has been eager to work, Phillips said.

“I was ready to get out of bed and get after it,” he said. “I took the attitude that I’d like for every aspect of the band program to be good.”

One of the routines Phillips created is his “rookie camp,” usually held the first week of June each year. It is for the beginning band members the following fall — typically middle school kids. It is held five days at the school, two to three hours a day.

“They learn left and right (marching steps),” he said. “Basically, it’s a chance for those kids to get to know me and me to know them.”

He won’t be doing that camp this year — “the sooner I can get out of the way, the better” for the band and the new director, Phillips said.

Before going to West Hall, Phillips was assistant band director and choral director at East Hall High School, with Mercer Crook.

“Mercer and I had a ball,” Phillips said.

The move occurred, he said, because “I live about 300 yards over there and kept watching ’em build (this) building.” When he was asked about the move, he took it.

His first band had about 100 seniors. “I was surprised that many wanted to come over,” he said.

The marching bands were larger in the 1990s, Phillips said, because the school enrollment was about 1,600 students. Now the enrollment is about 1,000 and the band is usually 85 to 105 students.

Early in his career, he started the practice of taking a trip — at first once a year, then every two years.

The band has performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif.; Cotton Bowl Parade in Dallas; Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington, D.C.; Disney World Fantastic Lights Parade; Gatlinburg Night of Lights Christmas Parade and events in New York and Chicago.

The band played at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago this spring.

Phillips noted that one trip was to Hawaii and the band played on the USS Missouri July 4. “That was a big deal,” he said.

“Every trip’s special,” Phillips said. “The kids come back 10 years later and still talk about it.”

Tim Gale, West Hall choral director, praised Phillips for his friendship.

“In all the (27) years that we have worked together, we, truthfully, have never spoken ill of each other, or have we ever had a cross word or problem,” Gale said. “Ernie has been a friend since the first day I met him on the job, and he continues to be so. He has been like a brother to me.”

He gets similar praise from former students.

“Mr. Phillips is a second dad to his students, and I’m so thankful for the time I had in band with him and his family. He demanded excellence because he knew we were capable of more. He turned many of us from whiny kids to young adults with a diligent work ethic,” Amy Kelley Leonard, who was in band from 2001-05, wrote in an email.

Amanda Dutton, who graduated in 1996, said, “His passion for directing an amazing band and the heart he has for his students and their families goes well beyond the walls of a classroom or the field of a stadium.” She and her son, Ryan Brown, who is a sophomore, were members of the band.

Phillips said retirement was not on his mind when he started this school year. But several factors contributed — his wife’s bout with cancer; his recognition that his retirement pay is as high as it is likely to get; and an email from his son Matt, who does the band website, about the fall 2016 band schedule.

“I still enjoyed what I was doing, but I realized I was beginning to dread the fall,” he said.

He said 35 years “is a long time” and noted that he typically loses about 30 pounds during the marching season from July to November. “It takes a lot of physical effort,” he said.

Once the announcement was made, Phillips said, “I’ve had phone calls, emails, all kinds of opportunities. I’ve said, basically, call me in June.’”

He said, “I think I’d like to be retired about three months.” That will include some travel with wife, Connie, and “quality time” with the grandkids.

His principal, Scott Justus, said, “Mr. Phillips has been a pillar to our community and an example for all who have worked at West Hall High School the last 28 years. He will always bleed Spartan blue and silver. We will miss him directing our ‘Band of Silver.’”

His years of teaching are understood when he mentions students coming in as freshmen and leaving as seniors.

“Watching kids walk in here when they’re 13 years old and grow as a musician and grow as a person, it’s a neat process,” he said quietly.