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At the Troup County School System board meeting on Thursday, the board approved Deana Brown, who has served as the director of elementary education for the last two years, as the new assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and professional learning.

“Deana competed against eight very strong candidates during interviews on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021,” Shumate said. “The interview committee consisted of 11 people: the superintendent, one assistant superintendent, two human resources directors, one elementary principal, one middle school principal, one high school principal, one high school assistant principal, one nursing coordinator, one technology director, and one chief financial officer.”

Shumate said Brown began her administrative career as an assistant principal in the Meriwether County School System.

“She accepted her first principal position in 2011 at Mountain View Elementary in Meriwether and served in that position until being promoted in 2017 to the position of assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction,” he said. “She has a proven track record of success in the elementary division as a principal and as an assistant superintendent. Her experience and expertise will be a valuable asset to our administrative team.”

Brown thanked the school board for allowing her the opportunity to serve them, faculty and staff, students, and the community in her new role.

“I know they are very big shoes to fill, with a lot of expectations,” she said. “And I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many visionary leaders over the last couple of years to see the things that are already going on in Troup County that are really absolutely amazing. But to continue to build onto that and make it to where we have high expectations for all of our students and provide additional opportunities that they are interested in that make them very successful members of our community upon graduation.”

In other business at the meeting, a number of teachers were honored for continuing their education with advanced degrees. They were Thomas Edward Lawson, Jr., who recently completed his master of applied teaching/teaching secondary education from the University of Georgia; Bridgette Tatum, who completed her specialist in curriculum and instruction from LaGrange College; Shelby Key Waldroup, a horticulture teacher at Troup High School who completed her master of science in agricultural leadership and education from the University of Georgia; and Kelton Hunt, an audio-visual/film teacher at Troup High School received his master of music in music production from Berklee College of Music.

Community volunteers were also recognized.

“We have a group of amazing community volunteers who stepped up last year during a critical time for our virtual students to become trained, virtual volunteer tutors and mentors,” Board Chair Cathy Hunt said.

“These community volunteers were trained in literacy practices to work with matched elementary school students twice a week for at least 30 minutes each session.”

Hunt said the volunteer tutors not only helped with “tricky words,” phonemic awareness drills, and interactive read aloud from online reading sites but built relationships with the students and their families.

“We are grateful for their commitment during a year that our school system and our families needed extra supports from the community,” she said.

“Several of these community tutors are still working virtually with their students this year, as well.”

The volunteers recognized were Pam Huff, Debra Boswell, Lera Cotton, Robin Cheeks and Sharon Dunson from Continental Society; Catherine Holmes, Emily Joseph, Kim Myers, Stephanie Preston and Gail Gordon from Get Troup Reading; Ann and David Sellman, Debbie Burdette, Sue Duttera and Judy Lawrence from First Presbyterian Church; Ann Blackwell, Claire Batchelor, Kay Elem and Cerie Godfrey from First Baptist Church; Barb Henigin from Rotary; Molly Allen, Heather Wallace and Pam Murphy from TCSS staff; Chalton Askew, Connie Askew, Edward Boswell and Erin Srivastava from Education Task Force; Maralyn Hazelgrove from Foster Grandparents; and Nathan Taylor from Troup County Sheriff’s Department.