Gallatin County High School alumnus Jamie Johnson has donated time and money to the district’s schools, earning him the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Kentucky School Boards Association.
Johnson received the honor March 2 during KSBA’s 82nd annual conference in Louisville. KSBA sponsors the award, given annually since 1989.
“Jamie has always helped whenever we have asked,” Gallatin County High School Principal Jon Jones said.
KSBA Executive Director Kerri Schelling, left, and President David Webster, chairman of the Simpson County
Board of Education, presented the 2018 KSBA Friend of Education Award to Jamie Johnson of Gallatin County.
Johnson sponsors events for drug awareness and supports the college and career ready students in the district. Johnson, along with his employer, Dorman Products, has provided those students with T-shirts announcing their accomplishment. Johnson has continued to stay involved with the high school even after the graduation of two of his sons.
He also volunteers for the district’s Middle and Upper Elementary schools. At both, Johnson helps lead and provide funding for programs such as Leader in Me, which teaches leadership fundamentals to young people. He personally lobbied his employer, Dorman Products to donate $54,000 to the program, as well as getting the company to participate in a coat drive and donate binders and copies of information to Gallatin’s school resource centers.
Johnson also arranged for Dorman employees to help with Readifest, the district’s annual back-to-school supply drive, along with food drives, reading buddies, after-school clubs and leadership days.
Johnson has supported and provided engineers to lead the middle school’s Lego Robotics team, “opening thousands of doors for these impressionable children to explore,” the board’s student school board member, Maggie Wright wrote in nominating him. Johnson and his team of adults also read to children at the district’s Lower Elementary School, to help students both with their literacy and to give them confidence.
Johnson also organized and led the Amazing Race, a back-to-school activity, and founded the organization “Stand With Us” to have the community make a positive statement to combat the use of drugs. He provided wristbands and T-shirts to all attendees of its event.
“His kindness truly does reach district-wide,” Wright said. “Jamie Johnson has changed this town and our schools for the better.”