RINCON — The Effingham County Board of Education recently rearranged a couple chairs of leadership, and Brett Griffin and Matt Huntley are proud to be sitting in them.

After Ebenezer Middle School Principal Tammy Jacobs was named the school district’s testing coordinator, the board picked Griffin, the Crossroads Academy coordinator, to succeed her at EMS. It then tapped Huntley, an assistant principal and athletic director at Effingham County High School, to head Crossroads Academy, an alternative school whose mission is to provide a structured and supportive environment that will lead to a diploma and/or career success for one reason or another.

“It’s a chance to lead a building and kind of run my own show a little bit,” Huntley said. “It will be good. I’m excited about it.”

Griffin is eager to get started at his new post, too.

“Ebenezer is a great school,” he said. “We have a lot of good teachers, a good staff, and I am excited to be a part of that.”

Huntley, an ECHS educator for 16 years, echoed those words while talking about Crossroads.

“Everybody that I’ve met at Crossroads has been awesome,” he said. “I’m excited to start working with those people.”

Under Griffin’s direction, Crossroads’ role in the education process in the county grew exponentially. It’s latest graduating class had more than 40 members.

“Crossroads gave them an opportunity to get finished (with their requirements), get caught up so that they could get that high school diploma and move on to whatever they are going to do,” Griffin said. “It is an integral piece to everything that goes on and our board and (Superintendent) Dr. (Yancy) Ford have recognized that. There has been a tremendous amount of effort focusing in on these students.

“I also give credit to the high schools because they have been a huge resource so that we could get the things that we needed so that we could get those students across the stage.”

Huntley fully understands Crossroads’ role.

“We’re very big on this is just an alternative setting (for learning) and some kids just don’t need that stock setting,” he said. “They just need to be able to go in and do their work, get their credits and be able to move on to bigger and better things. We’re very adaptable to different ways of doing stuff and I look forward to getting to know the kids and figuring out what works for them.”