Cliff Cole, superintendent of the Paulding County School District, was recently presented with the Georgia School Superintendents Association's President’s Award. Cole was selected out of the nearly 180 superintendents representing school districts throughout the state of Georgia.

According to a news release Tuesday, Cole was nominated by Dexter Mills, executive director of the Northwest Georgia Regional Education Service Agency. The letter of nomination focused on Cole’s actions in the aftermath of a category EF-3 tornado that struck Poole Elementary School on the evening of Friday, March 2. Mills stated that Cole took “immediate and decisive action” and was able to “rally all of the necessary community resources and offer a calmness and assuredness that helped the entire Poole Community.”

Mills wrote that “remarkably, after a weekend of hard work by Mr. Cole and dedicated system employees and his utilization of community resources, he was able to announce on Sunday that Poole Elementary School would be open and ready for students on Monday morning” only two days after the tornado struck. Mills concluded his letter of nomination by stating that Cole had “handled all of the problems with the grace, skill, and compassion of a true leader.”

“I am extremely honored to receive this award and sincerely appreciate the efforts of our maintenance department, district staff, and local school administration who worked so diligently to have Poole Elementary School open for students on that Monday morning,” Cole said in the news release. “I am blessed to work in a community that supports and our schools and work with a team of individuals dedicated to the students of Paulding County.”