Augusta Prep's leader is leaving

Once this school year ends, so does Jack Hall's tenure at Augusta Preparatory Day School.

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Hall, the head of schools at Augusta Prep, announced last week that he will leave in June to become headmaster of The Walker School in Marietta, Ga.

"It's been a hard day for me," Hall said Wednesday, the day after he announced his intention to resign. "It's been tough telling the kids."

Walker is a private, nonsectarian school similar to Augusta Prep, but with about twice the student population. Following an extensive search, Hall was selected to succeed the current headmaster at The Walker School, who will retire at the end of the school year.

For Hall and his wife Cathy, a fifth- and sixth-grade English teacher at Augusta Prep, the move will be a homecoming. Both are from the Atlanta area.

"Because Cathy and I both grew up in Atlanta, we've got a lot of friends there we're excited to reconnect with," Hall said. "Plus, Cathy's parents live there.

"We're sad to leave Augusta, but we're leaving for good reasons. There was a professional and personal opportunity that was intriguing and exciting to us."

Though Hall will be gone, his wife and daughter, Alice, will stay for one more school year.

"Our daughter's a junior and she'll stay here and finish her senior year," Hall said. "She started here in kindergarten and loves it here. She wouldn't want to graduate from any place else."

Cathy Hall will remain as a teacher at the Martinez-based school until Alice graduates.

A search committee to replace Hall already has been formed by the school's board of directors. Hall said the committee likely will employ a firm to locate a new head of schools.