Phillis Gaines is Staff Member of the Year at Bob Jones High School. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Phillis Gaines was named Staff Member of the Year at Bob Jones High School.

As a bookkeeper at Bob Jones, Gaines handles the revenues and expenditures of the various classes, clubs, sports teams and activities of the school.

Within recent years, Gaines has taken pride in “our implementation of online fee payments. (This service) has been instrumental in making that task convenient for parents and eliminated the need for parents to come to school and wait in long lines to pay their students’ fees.”

Ironically, the most rewarding part of Gaines’ job is also the most challenging aspect. “I have the privilege of working with teachers, coaches and community volunteers in making sure that our students have a positive and successful high school experience,” she said.

She is married to Robin Gaines, who also works at Bob Jones; he is a health and physical education teacher. He also serves as head coach for the boys and girls’ cross-country teams, along with track and field.

Phillis and Robin Gaines have three children. Courtney Sutton works as an intensive care unit nurse at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika. Luke Gaines is an engineer in metrology (science of measurement) at Shape Fidelity Inc. in Huntsville. Casey Gaines works as an elementary school teacher for Huntsville City Schools.

The Gaines family has lived in Madison since April 2008.

When away from work at Bob Jones, Phillis Gaines’ newfound, favorite pastime is “spending time with my grandchildren.”

Each year, the faculty and staff at each campus in the Madison City Schools district vote on a co-worker to receive the Teacher of the Year and Staff Member of the Year honors. School administrators announced the recipients of these honors in May at the end of the school year.