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The Troup County School System has had to make several important hires since Brian Shumate was hired as superintendent two years ago. (Yes, it’s already been two years!)

The newest one occurred Monday when Jason Graham was hired as the new principal at Callaway High School. Graham was the top candidate of about 20 who applied for the position, and his experience as a former assistant principal at Troup High probably helped separate him from the pack.

That, along with the fact that he’s been a principal at Hollis Hand Elementary for the last two years.

TCSS continues to hire from within, promoting people who work hard and do a good job.

Shumate has noted before that TCSS doesn’t purposely hire the local candidate, as it’s after the best overall candidate who applies for a position. And that’s definitely the right way to handle hiring.

However, it’s a good sign that the best candidate continues to be someone local.

And a lot of these hires, including Graham, are TCSS graduates, people who experienced the school system as a student and now an educator. The list of those kinds of people goes on and on. Another recent example is Jonathan Laney, who was recently named the new director of secondary education. Laney graduated from LaGrange High and was the Callaway principal before getting his new job.

There are going to be times where hiring someone who isn’t local is the best option. Shumate’s hire is a great example of that.

But promoting within creates a pride in the school system and allows employees to see there are opportunities for promotion. It can be disheartening if all open positions are hired from someone from the outside.

TCSS continues to do a good job of looking within, giving its own local candidates an opportunity for these leading roles, and we think that’s a great thing.