We have said this before but it’s worthy of a repeat, the Newton County school Board is about to lose three of its most productive and brightest members.

Cathy Dobbs, Dr. C.C. Bates and Johnny Smith will be leaving the board for different reasons.

In addition, current superintendent of Schools Dr. Steve Whatley will be retiring at the end of this school term.

It was announced on Thursday that Gary Matthews will be our new superintendent. We are sure he will be a worthy leader, but he is going to need a strong board to work with.

We have many good quality leaders in our community who could step up to the plate and run for these three soon-to-be-vacated spots. We are asking those leaders to step forward and commit themselves to seeing that our future in both our city and county — our children — have the right leadership to continue the progress that has been made so far, and to help lead them into the future.