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It is the pleasure of the Lexington Blueberry Festival Committee to announce the 2011 Festival Grand Marshall, for his outstanding lifetime commitment to Family, Community, and Country. Long time Lexington Principal Jim Goode will be our Parade Grand Marshall this year.
In the spring of 1967, Jim Goode graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a double major in Political Science and Geography. His goal was to attend law school but accepted a social studies teaching and coaching position with the Mansfield City Schools to save money to put towards the cost of law school. His teaching and coaching experience was so great that he decided that his career would be in education. Jim spent the next 20 years teaching and coaching at Mansfield Senior High School, his alma mater. During that time, he taught a variety of social studies courses, coached boys basketball teams on the sophomore, junior varsity and varsity levels and coached both boys and girls tennis. Additionally, he was the advisor for several clubs and organizations and served as class advisor for the classes of 1970, 1972 and 1983. In 1983, Jim earned a masters of education degree in school administration from Ashland University. In the spring of 1987, he was hired by the Lexington Local Schools to be the Assistant Principal – Athletic Director for Lexington High School. Jim held this position until the spring of 1994 when he moved into the Assistant Principal - Activities Director position. He was in this position until the spring of 2000 when he moved into the building principal position. It was in this position that he set out to challenge each class to do their best, to not be afraid to take rigorous classes and to improve the curriculum by adding additional advanced placement and advanced courses which would be open to any student wanting the challenge and many students took this challenge with much success. Over the years, with a few exceptions, each class has bettered the scholarship dollar total won by the class before it. The Class of 2011 has set a new school record in this area with their total, as of this writing, at $3,957,500.00 which is outstanding. Jim states that "all of this academic success is due to the presence of hard working, dedicated and student oriented faculty and student bodies who have been willing to work hard and be challenged". In addition to the academic success of the students, Jim also commends them on their successes in athletic, music and fine art competitions. He describes himself as one of their biggest cheerleaders who usually concludes the closing announcements each day after wishing the various groups "good luck" in their contests that day with his signature GO LEX!! Jim Goode brings to closure 44 "wonderful years", to quote him, in the education business. Twenty at Mansfield Senior and 24 at Lexington High School, which he describes as one of the "finest high schools" in the State of Ohio!! He describes as a "humbling experience" all of the kind words and recognitions he has received from students and parents since announcing his retirement. He won't be far away and will forever be a follower of Lexington High School activities!
As far as retirement plans, he and Linda, his wife of 37 years, will spend more time in Cincinnati with youngest daughter Lyndsay, her husband and their three children – Liana who will be three and six month old twins Max and Marissa. If not in Cincinnati, Jim plans to spend more time visiting his son David, who is also a twin, in Chicago and following oldest daughter Sarah who lives and teaches social studies in Ashland. When not traveling, Jim hopes to get in some boating on Lake Erie and start working on his long list of "honey do's"! Jim thanks the Blueberry Festival Committee for the opportunity to be a Marshall for the parade and he hopes to have his granddaughter, Liana, with him who loves blueberries!!
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