CELINA-Schools director Donnie Cherry’s contract will be a topic of discussion at the December meeting of the school board, officials announced last Friday. 

The board will hold its regular monthly meeting Thursday, December 10 at 6 p.m. in the board room of the central office. 

Cherry was hired in January after a two-month search and several votes to replace former director Doug Young. 

Cherry, a former Hermitage Springs School principal, was one of four finalists for the job. The others were Jerry Strong, Anna Locke and Champ Langford.

After a special meeting in December of 2008 ended in a voting deadlock between Cherry and Locke, board members came back in January and voted again on the four finalists. Cherry and Strong wound up as the two finalists at the January meeting, with Cherry getting the nod for the job on the fourth vote at that meeting. 

Before the voting on the individual candidates started, the board had voted 9-1 to hire the new director to finish the 2008-09 school year and for the current  school year, basically an 18-month period.