Dr. Jim Gardner Named Central’s Man of the Year

Veteran Central Educator Guided Building of $45M School Complex

by Woody Jenkins, editor

CENTRAL — If you had lived near the intersection of Hooper and Joor roads in the late 1940’s, you probably did your grocery shopping at Gardner’s Store on the corner where Dr. Tim Raborn’s dental office is now located.

In 1949, you certainly would have noticed Mrs. Gardner’s handsome 14-year-old son Jim who would bag your groceries and carry them out to your car.  After all, Jim already stood 6 feet tall.  He was a big, athletic kid whom the coaches at Central High had begun to notice.  And he had an infectious smile that the girls seemed to like.

Today, more than 60 years later, that young man has lived a full and successful life. Yet, he is still serving the people of Central — now as president of the Central Community School Board.

Over the past two years, Dr. Jim Gardner oversaw construction of Central’s $45 million school complex — one of the largest construction projects in the history of the parish, a facility that has raised Central’s schools from among the worst in the state to among the best.

He is a little older now, but he still has the bearing of the athlete he once was, and he still has the infectious smile that lights up a room.

Central High head football coach Sid Edwards said, “Dr. Jim Gardner is a great man!  He’s a visionary.  And one of his most important traits is that he is a balanced man — with a broad perspective of education, which encompasses academia, extracurricular activities, and athletics.  He sees value and merit in all of these.”

“He also knows his football!” Coach Sid laughed, “He gives me advice from time to time, and he’s right!’  Jim Gardner should know his football. He was Most Valuable Player on the Central High School team in his senior year.  But he’s proudest of another award he received that year — the first-ever J. A. Smith Best Athlete Award, which was personally presented by legendary Central High principal J.A. Smith.

Jim earned a football scholarship to LSU and became the first Central High graduate to actually play for the Tigers.

The Central High School football team photo for 1952 showed Donald Ray Kennard on the front row wearing number 43 and Jim Gardner on the back row, the only player without a chin strap.  Not a single Central player had a face mask.  That was a thing of the future.

Jim Gardner’s senior year on the LSU Tiger football team was 1957 — one year before LSU’s first-ever National Championship team.  He is No. 80 in the front row.  Just to the left is All-American Jimmy Taylor.  Others in the photo include the great All-American Billy Cannon, Warren Rabb, and Johnny Robinson.  1957 was the only year Jimmy Taylor and Billy Cannon were on the team together.

Jim Gardner’s grandfather was a Baptist minister from Natchitoches who took his wife to Panama to start a church during the construction of the Panama Canal right after the turn of the century.  Jim’s mother, Mattie Wise Gardner, was born in the U.S. Canal Zone in 1906.  Jim’s dad, Urban H. Gardner, was a railroad man from Texas.

Jim grew up with a strong Christian influence from his parents.

In 1948, the Gardners bought a small grocery store in Central.  They called it Gardner’s Store.  It was no more than 500 square feet, and the family lived in the back of the store.  Jim was 13 when the family came to Central, and his parents used the store to teach him the importance of hard work and treating people right.

In those days, Mr. Eisworth had a store on the Greenwell Springs Road at the intersection with Sullivan.

Mr. Ezell had a store at Joor and Sullivan.  The Edwards Store was at Hooper and Sullivan, and Mr. J.D. Long had a store at Blackwater and Core.  At the intersection of Hooper and Plank roads was the Six-Mile Store, so named because it was six miles from Baton Rouge.

“There weren’t many people in Central in those days, and we knew just about everyone,” Gardner said.  Today, almost all of their customers have passed away.  Jim would give a lot for a photo of Gardner’s Store.  “We didn’t have a camera.  Not many people did.”

Gardner graduated from Central High in 1953.  He earned his B.S. in 1957 and went on to earn his Master’s in 1961 and his Doctorate in 1973, all from LSU.

At Central High, Jim met Elaine Hodgeson, and they became high school sweethearts.  They married in 1954, after Jim’s freshman year at LSU.  After graduation from LSU, they moved to Crowley, where Jim accepted a position as a teacher and coach at Crowley High School.  They won District championships but in 1963, his Crowley team lost to Central and David LeSage in the quarterfinals.

Elaine and Jim had one natural child, Dennis Gardner.  They lost a child and were unable to have more.  But they adopted two children, John Gardner and Anne Marie Sensat.  They raised another child, Mark Hornsby, whom they never formally adopted but who is like a son to them.  Today Mark is Federal Magistrate in Shreveport.

Jim taught and coached until 1966 when he joined the central office staff of the Acadia Parish School Board.  He developed an expertise in computers in the very early days of computers and managed the parish’s computer operations.  The main frame computer was the size of a school classroom.  He became active in state and national computer organizations and served as president of the Louisiana Association of Computer Users in Education.  He left the school board in 1978 to become a private education consultant.  He worked for five years at the Louisiana Department Education and 13 years at Southern University.

He and wife Elaine moved back to their beloved Central in 1985.  Unfortunately, by then, Elaine was suffering from very serious health problems, mostly caused by her diabetes.  This led to kidney failure and a heart attack.  Family friends recount how Jim took care of her faithfully during years of illness before Elaine passed away.

In 1991, Jim married Mary Ann Gilson of Natchitoches.  Mary Ann has two children, Laura Seabaugh and Ginger Conner.  Laura’s husband is Rep. Alan Seabaugh of Shreveport.  Ginger’s husband is Rev. Oren Conner, pastor of First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge.

For many years, Dr. Gardner has been a widely sought-after expert on education matters.

In 2006, when Gov. Kathleen Blanco was considering whom to appoint to the first Central Community School Board, the late Rep. Donald Ray Kennard nominated Dr. Gardner for one of the seven positions on the board.  She approved that nomination, and Dr. Gardner was a member of the first school board when it was sworn in January 2007.

Since then, Jim Gardner has played a key role in every important decision made by the board, including the selection of Mike Faulk as the school system’s first superintendent, the apportionment of the school board into seven single-member districts, the creation of Central Intermediate School, and the submission to the voters of a bond and tax election to build the new Central School Board.

In December 2010, Gardner was elected president of the school board — a critical position because the school system was just beginning the design, letting of bids, and construction of the $45 million school complex.

His first two-year term as president has seen the complex move from design to completion.  Today, Central has one of the finest school facilities in the South.  During the design and construction period, a thousand things could have gone wrong.  But, thanks to a good superintendent, an active, involved school board, and an experienced and committed school board president, the school complex has been a great success.

For all Dr. Gardner has accomplished, he credits Supt. Mike Faulk, his fellow school board members (“We have a great school board!”), and his most trusted friend, advisor, and confidant, his wife Mary Ann.

Now, Dr. Jim Gardner is looking ahead to further challenges for the Central school system.  Here are some of his goals:

• Working with the Central community and the City of Central, develop a plan for use of the old Central Middle School property.  Many proposals have been made but Dr. Gardner said he hopes the final plan will incorporate public space such as City Hall, Library, Post Office, School

Board office, and other facilities.

• Move the school system as a whole to the No. 1 position in school performance scores.  “I could argue for hours about how performance scores should be calculated but the fact is, this is how we are evaluated, and we need to be the best.”

• The Central school system should implement its Strategic Plan, emphasizing those things that will enhance the educational process. “It’s not all about college prep, but every course needs to be rigorous and relevant,” he said.

• The Central school system must be highly competitive in attracting the best teachers and personnel, including a competitive salary schedule.

• Central schools should be at the forefront of using technology in the educational process and in preparing students for productive work that utilizes technology.

• Locate the 9th Grade Academy in its own facility and make sure that 9th graders, who have a wide variety of interests, talents, and needs, have every opportunity to achieve their potential.

This week, the Central Community School Board elected Dr. Jim Gardner to his second two-year term as president of the board.

In light of his devotion to the people of Central, his long years of experience and faithful service, and his commitment to the future of the Central Community School System and its students, the Central City News is pleased to recognize Dr. Jim Gardner as Central’s 2012 Man of the Year.